


Stranger Danger

by BlueWaterRedFlame



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Birthday, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Drinking, Family, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Gay Keith (Voltron), Homophobia, M/M, Pizza, Reality TV, minor adashi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-11 15:57:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 40,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15319002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueWaterRedFlame/pseuds/BlueWaterRedFlame
Summary: When a mysterious mullet headed boy shows up at Lance’s door in the middle of the night, Lance is conflicted on what to do. Should he let him in and help? Or should he turn him away just to be safe? The boy at the door looks really tired and claims he needs somewhere to crash for the night. Lance’s mom always told him about stranger danger, but he’s a goddamn adult now who is capable of making his own decisions. Eh, what could go wrong? -- A story by BlueWater.





	1. Wine, Pizza, and Broken Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> aaaa this is my First Fanfic™ and I hope it goes well? Here it goes, I hope you guys enjoy!!

 

➴➶➴➶  _ **Part One**_ ➴➶➴➶

 

It’s going to be a good night. Lance has his bottle of wine, his special glass he got for his birthday, and all the reality TV his dramatic ass can handle. This is the first time he actually has the house to himself for the night since he moved in, and boy is he excited! Today is his roommate Pidge’s 18th birthday, so obviously Hunk absolutely had to take her clubbing for first time. Pidge was always really upset whenever they would go without her, but they couldn’t do anything about it because the law is the law. _But_ today she finally got to experience it, and she was going to _party._ They tried to convince Lance to come too, but he just really wasn’t feeling it tonight, and told them to go have fun without him. To be brutally honest, Lance _really_ didn’t want to go because he used to have a _thing_ with one of the bartenders at the club they go to, and that _thing_ ended rather terribly, and there was absolutely no way he wanted to run into his ex tonight. Hunk and Pidge didn't have to know that was the reason he didn’t want to go however. It was _way_ easier to say he just didn’t feel good and just wanted to relax. Sitting in a recliner and watching reality TV all night is definitely a better alternative anyway.

As he sips, slowly watching the level of wine get lower and lower within the bottle, he feels his stomach begin to rumble. Shit. He had this whole night planned out to be the best relaxation time of his life, and he forgets about _food?_ Really Lance? He groans and gets up to raid the fridge to see if there is anything that can calm his stomach’s intense screaming. He pries open the door to the fridge and all that he’s met with are a bunch of _half meals_. In other words, there’s a whole bunch of sandwich meat, but no bread, hotdog buns, but no hot dog, milk but no cereal, hell, there’s even pasta sauce but no spaghetti. He really can’t imagine himself _actually_ stooping to putting sandwich meat in a hotdog bun; he’s _way_ too classy for that.

Lance’s unsuccessful kitchen raid is interrupted by the sound of the notification bell on his phone. He looks down to see a text from Hunk.

  **Hunk**

 > _Dude! She’s loving it! She’s going absolutely crazy haha I wish you were here! I have so many vids and pics to show you tomorrow ahaha_

  **Lance**

 > _Has she made out with anybody yet? Haha._

  **Hunk**

 > _Almost. Shit she’s getting hit on so much. These guys are kinda trashy looking tho so she’s rejecting the hell out of them_

  **Lance**

 > _Let me know if she makes out with anybody!_

 > _Also, when was the last time we went grocery shopping?_

  **Hunk**

 > _Shit probably like ...a long time ago why?_

  **Lance**

 > _I totally forgot to buy dinner for myself lol._

  **Hunk**

 > _Go out and get something. Treat yo’self._

  **Lance**

 > _But you guys took the car remember?_

  **Hunk**

 > _lmao oh yeah. Duh! Sorry I’ve had a few drinks already_

  **Lance**

 > _Me too. This wine is the bomb dot com_

  **Hunk**

 > _Wine is disgusting. Shots are where it’s at._

  **Lance**

 > _Ew. I’m too good for that._

  **Hunk**

 > _well... I guess I can buy you a pizza or something like… to be delivered to the house?_

  **Lance**

 > _Really?_

  **Hunk**

 > _Yeah what do you want? I’ll order online._

  **Lance**

 > _You totally wouldn’t be doing this if you were sober.  But you know what pizza I want! My usual ;)_

  **Hunk**

 > _It’s really hard for me to physically press the ‘pineapple’ button on the website, but I guess I’ll have to do it. Jerk._

 > _Ok your disgusting fruit salad of a pizza is being made as we speak!_

  **Lance**

 > _Thanks omg I love you so much <3 _

  **Hunk**

 > _That’s pretty gay dude ;D_

  **Lance**

> _that’s what bromances are for my dude_

 

Lance leaves the kitchen relieved, and returns to the comfort of his favorite recliner and unpauses his show.

Did Hunk really just buy him a pizza with _pineapple_ on it? How the hell did he get him to agree to that?

Saying that Hunk doesn’t like pineapple on pizza is a _massive_ understatement. Not only does he not eat it, but he goes as far as not _allowing_ people he’s close to to eat it. He won’t even let Lance take a bite out of pineapple pizza while he’s in the same room. It’s almost like when a mother doesn’t want to see her children drinking alcohol even though they are _well_ over 21. Like, there’s nothing she can do to stop them, and there’s nothing illegal about it, but she still doesn’t support them doing it. It’s the same kind of situation with Hunk. He is _opposed_ to pineapple pizza. It’s not like the dude hates pineapples, or pizza. He _loves_ pineapples, and pizza is definitely one of his favorite foods, but mix those two together? He would rather die than ingest such a disgrace. For Hunk, it’s like a fucked up venn diagram where the middle is death. 

In all honestly, it only makes sense that Hunk is drunk enough to the point where he doesn’t care about what Lance eats anyway.

It’s only been thirty minutes, and Lance is starting to feel a little buzz from his wine. It’s a nice kind of buzz that makes the television just a little bit more funny. It’s the perfect level of drunk to be at for his all-night, all-alone, “The Bachelorette” marathon. The Bachelorette is honestly one of his favorite shows, and he isn’t embarrassed to say that. He loves watching all of the guys desperately trying to win _one_ girl over. The girl always tells every single guy the same thing too. It’s always ‘ _I love you and only you. I think you’re the one’ ,_ or something along the lines of that, which makes all of the guys feel special, but in reality they really don’t mean shit to her. He can’t even imagine all the stress of actually _being_ the bachelorette either. Like what would happen if he didn’t fall in love with any of the guys who were competing for your heart? Would he still have to marry one of them in the end? He also imagines how many lies the girl tells all of the guys. Most of those ‘ _I love you’_ s are _sooo_ obviously fake, but none of them seem to notice.

Long story short, the show is just enough of a mess to keep Lance entertained for the rest of the night. Honestly, it makes him feel better about his current love life. Even though it doesn’t exist, it’s at least not a complete mess, and that’s all that matters right? The Bachelorette is also the perfect show to enjoy with an entire bottle of wine while his roommates are out partying without him because he doesn’t want to run into his ex at the bar. Okay, maybe he’s being a little dramatic, but hey, you only live once, right?

After about an hour, the doorbell rings, signaling the pizza has finally arrived. He shoots up from his recliner, and bolts to the door. As soon as he opens the door, his nose is filled with the perfect scent combination of sweet and savory: the tangy aroma of tropical pineapple, paired with the dense smell of cheese and tomato sauce. It smells like _heaven_ to Lance, and he doesn’t understand how anybody could ever disagree. 

The pizza delivery man hands him a receipt to sign, and he quickly bullshits Hunk’s signature on it, takes his soon to be food baby, and closes the door, thanking the driver for the food.

As soon as he’s about to sit down, he realizes that the delivery guy’s pen is still in his hand. He thinks about running out giving him the pen back, but decides not to because it’s actually a _really_ nice pen. The ink glided so smoothly on the receipt, and it fit so comfortably in his hand when he was using it to sign, so he just stuffs it in his pocket, sits back down, and unpauses the Bachelorette.

**Lance**

  ** _IMAGE SENT_ **

 > _Yummm._

  **Hunk**

 > _Looks absolutely awful. Enjoy, dickhead_

  **Lance**

 > _Thanks again ^-^_

 

The pizza is so much better than he thought it would be. Usually when they order pizza, the delivery takes ages, and the cheese is already hardened and crusty by the time they get it. _This_ time on the other hand, the pizza is still toasty, and the pineapple is just the right amount of juicy, seeping easily into the melted mozzarella.

He eats his pizza, sips his wine, and watches his show. What more could he ask for? This night is definitely going _way_ better than it would’ve been going if he went to the club with Hunk and Pidge, isn’t it? Sometimes a pizza and wine party all by yourself is the perfect way to spend a Friday night, right? It does feel a little bit like he’s a single, middle-aged woman but hey, there’s nothing really wrong with that, is there?

A loud knock comes from the other side of the front door, causing Lance to jump a little bit because he isn’t expecting anybody to be coming.

_Wait._  

Shit. Oh no. It’s probably the pizza guy coming back for his pen. Nonono. No! Lance already made the decision that he really likes the pen and wants to keep it. Maybe he should just say he doesn’t have it? It’s not like the guy is going to accuse him of lying right?

 He shuffles to the door with a mouth full of pizza and quickly yanks it open, ready to convince the driver he doesn’t have his pen.

He gasps when he sees that the person on the other side of the door is actually _not_ the pizza guy, and is somebody completely different.

In front of him is a boy with pale skin and shoulder-length jet-black hair, holding his arms across his chest and shivering. His leather jacket and black skinny jeans are completely coated with mud. Beads of sweat are running down his face as he labors over each breath. He looks like a complete trainwreck, and _Lance just totally does not need to deal with whatever the hell this is right now. He’s gotta get back to see if Becca gave Chris a rose!_

Lance stares in confusion for a few seconds, analyzing the boy, still not sure why _this dude_ is at his doorstep, and not the pizza guy back for his pen.

“Can I help you?” he finally spits out with an annoyed tone, wondering why someone would be disrupting him at this time of the night? Sure he’s not asleep, but he _is_ doing something important.

“Hey, can you uh.. help me?” The boy speaks. His voice is a little bit deeper than Lance expects. His body seems scrawny and he’s kind of short, so naturally Lance assumed the boy’s voice would be slightly high pitched and not intimidating at all, but when he speaks, Lance actually jumps back a little bit.

“With….?” He raises an eyebrow.

“I’ve been walking around for hours. You’re the only house that actually answered when I knocked.”

This isn’t surprising to hear because Lance lives in pretty much the middle of nowhere, and all of his neighbors (if they can even be called that because of how far apart they are) are always out partying on Friday nights, so nobody is really ever around.

“Ok, but what’s wrong with ya? Are you like.. homeless?” Lance says impatiently waiting for this guy to say what he wants and get out of here. “Look, if you want some spare change, just ask alright? I’ve got _business_ to take care of.”

Lance’s _business_ is totally sitting on the recliner eating pineapple pizza and watching Becca’s date with David, but that’s actually semi important alright? 

“No I’m not asking for money, and I’m not homeless. I just need a place to stay for the night.”

_What?!_  

Lance scoffs, inching his body closer and closer behind the front door as if he is about to slowly shut it in the boy’s face. “Look dude, I can call the police for you, and they’ll take you home.  

The boy shakes his head, tears forming in his eyes. “No. I can’t go home.”

“Why’s that?”

“Long story. Look. Just let me crash here tonight, and I’ll be out of your way in the morning.”

Lance hesitates for a bit before he finally lets out a very annoyed groan.

“Fine. If you try anything though, I’ll beat your brains out!” He warns, pointing his finger at the dude, trying to sound threatening. His voice comes off as a little nervous, but hey, at least his voice didn’t crack.

The boy’s face lights up with happiness. “Thank you!- I- I promise I won’t disturb you!” He says, slowly walking into the house tiptoeing, not wanting to get anything dirty.

“Too late.” Lance says under his breath, but the boy doesn’t hear.

He politely takes his shoes off upon entering, leaving them on the door mat. “I don’t wanna dirty up your floor”

They never really cared about the whole _take your shoes off before entering_ kind of thing because that’s honestly too much work, and they don’t have any carpet floors anyway so nothing will really get too dirty. But this guy’s shoes? They were really _really_ dirty and messed up, so he’s happy he took them off.

“Thanks.” Lance sighs. “So uh, what’s your name? I need to call you _something.”_

“Uh. I’m Keith. What’s your name?” The boy asks, scratching the back of his neck.

“Lance. Now listen, there’s a spare bedroom at the end of the hallway and a bathroom attached to the room. Go sleep in there.” He nods, pointing down the hallway.

Luckily, they have an unused bedroom in the house. It actually used to be their old roommate, Shiro’s room, but he moved out awhile back to go live with his girlfriend, and nobody took his place. He never really cleaned it out, so there’s still a bunch of posters on the wall, and some leftover socks lying around. The room is still overall pretty messy, but it’s not like he’s trying to impress this random dude about the cleanliness of his house, so he couldn’t care less.

“Thank you.” _Keith_ says, walking down the hallway and into the bedroom. He shuts the door behind him, leaving Lance standing in the kitchen alone, completely unsure of what the hell just happened.

What the _fuck?_ Did he really just let a stranger into his house? At midnight? To spend the night? He’s always seen this kind of thing in movies, and it never _ever_ ends well. He remembers in one movie, this guy lets two teenage girls into his home to spend the night because they were lost, and they ended up killing him in his sleep. Is that going to happen to Lance? Gah, he needs to text Hunk.

**Lance**

 > _Hunk I think I just did something that might be really dumb._

A reply comes about five minutes later. Lance is actually surprised that Hunk’s not already passed out somewhere yet. He’s probably really drunk, but he is also usually pretty good when it comes to texting drunk.

**Hunk**

 > _Whats up?_

  **Lance**

 > _Ok so like this random ass dude just like showed up at our house and said he needed a place to stay_

 > _so I kinda just…_

 > _...let him stay here for the night?_

  **Hunk**

 > _WHAT?_

 > _WHOWHATWHENWHEREWHY_

  **Lance**

 > _hunk its ok calm down_

 > _it’s not like he’s intimidating or anything, he’s pretty short and doesn’t seem to have much muscle._

  **Hunk**

 > _You don’t have muscle either though! Where is he staying?_

  **Lance**

 > _Shiro’s old room. I told him I’m gonna knock him out if he tries anything._

  **Hunk**

 > _Good. Be prepared, never know what strangers are capable of_

  **Lance**

 > _So not to ruin your fun, but when will you be home?_

  **Hunk**

 > _A few hours i think. Pidge is still a ball of energy. Bouncing off the walls. And omg she made out with somebody!!_

  **Lance**

 > _Yay! I’m proud of her._

  **Hunk**

 > _See you soon._

 

Lance hears the shower start, which he’s actually thankful for because that means the dude is _occupied_ and won’t sneak up behind him with a knife or anything like that. 

He resumes his show and tries his best to ignore what just happened. He ends up opening another bottle of wine because he feels like he’s gonna need it to ease his mind during the night. Besides, it’ll probably make The Bachelorette even _more_ entertaining so that’s fun too.

 

➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶

 

“Hey I have a question” Keith asks from behind Lance. He jumps at the sound of his voice because he definitely did not hear any sort of footsteps or anything that would suggest there was somebody walking up behind him. This is gonna be fun. He let a stranger in his house, and this stranger apparently doesn’t make any noise when he walks? Lance feels like he’s definitely going to die tonight.

“What?” 

“You have a washing machine right?”

“Uh Yeah..?” Lance raises his eyebrow.

“Ok my clothes are really dirty. Can I wash them?” 

Lance scoffs at what he is hearing. For some reason, that sounds really ridiculous to him. He lets out a short chuckle. “You wanna _wash your clothes_ in my house?”

“Yeah?” Keith says, fidgeting with his fingers and staring down at the floor.

“That’ll be twenty five cents.” Lance jokes. “If you were just looking to get free laundry done, why didn’t you just ask?”

Keith doesn’t answer. He doesn’t seem to smile either. Honestly if there’s any way to put it, he looks moderately intimidated by Lance. This does makes sense though because Lance is slightly taller than Keith, and if anything, Lance _does_ know where all of the kitchen knives are located if things _do_ turn hostile.

“What’re you gonna wear while they’re washing?” Lance asks, pretty much knowing exactly what the answer is going to be. 

Keith pauses, trying to think of something to say. “Well I-” he stutters slightly before continuing, “I was hoping-“

“I would have clothes for you?” Lance cuts him off, smirking ever so slightly.

“Yeah.” 

“Let me go check.” Lance rolls his eyes, stepping into his room and looking in the very back of his closet. He definitely isn’t going to give this dude any of his _good_ clothes. He’s gonna have to settle for clothes that he probably hasn't worn for a few years. 

While he’s in his room, he takes out his phone again and send Hunk a quick update.

**Lance**

 > _Update, he asked if i could wash his clothes, and he’s wearing my clothes in the meantime. I feel like I’m in a horror movie_

  **Hunk**

 > _Be safe. He’s not acting weird is he?_

  **Lance**

 > _Nah he honestly seems like he’s a little shaken up, and intimidated._

  **Hunk**

 > _What happened to him?_

  **Lance**

 > _Haven’t asked yet, but I’ll try to get it out of him_

  **Hunk**

 > _Lemme know_

  **Lance**

 > _Hey how are you texting me right now? Aren’t you like blackout drunk?_

  **Hunk**

 > _It’s really hard but autocorrect is fixing all my types._

  **Lance**

 > _Mhm ok._

Lance settles on an old black T-shirt that smells like his closet, and a pair of slightly ripped black sweatpants. He figures that it’s a nice alternative to what the dude was originally wearing. Skinny jeans and leather are definitely not comfortable to sleep in, so either way, he knew he would’ve had to lend him some clothes. Lance isn’t _that_ heartless.

He leaves his room and gives Keith the clothes to switch into. Seeing how tight his jeans are, it’ll probably take him about ten minutes to fully change. Nine of those minutes spent prying those crusty jeans off.

This really isn’t what he wanted. He should’ve just went to the club and risked seeing his ex, dammit. But, this is the current situation, it isn’t going to change and he decides that he just needs to deal with it. Morning will come soon, and this weird guy will be gone. He can finish this season of The Bachelorette another night. Lance takes another sip of wine. This _definitely_ isn’t going to stop him from finishing another bottle of wine tonight though.

 

➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶

 

“So...I’m guessing you’re hungry too?” Lance asks, knowing damn well Keith isn’t going to ask for food himself.

“Yeah. A little.” He says, obviously not wanting to say it. He most definitely feels like the biggest inconvenience he could possibly be. Showing up at somebody’s house, using their shower, borrowing their clothes, and _then_ having the audacity to ask for food? Keith could never have done it. When Lance finally offered, he feels a wave of relief wash over him. _Food_. Keith hadn’t really eaten anything all today. Now it’s past midnight so he’s actually gone more than a full day without any food. 

“Well I do have a few more slices of pineapple pizza. Not sure how you feel about ... _that,_ but I’d be willing to sacrifice some.” Lance holds out the box to him.

Keith is so distraught that he doesn’t even know if he likes pineapple on pizza or not, but he doesn’t care right now, it’s something edible that he can ingest.

He vacuums the pizza down his throat in a matter of a few seconds. Lance’s eyes widen at how quickly he eats, but he decides not to say anything.

“You know you can like…. sit down?” Lance says emotionlessly.

Keith hasn’t even realized he had been standing up the whole time he has been there. He feels too awkward and out of place to sit down. But hey, at least he’s _inside_ somewhere.

Keith finds a chair on pretty much the complete opposite side of the room from Lance and takes a seat. They’ve both been keeping a distance between each other, as if they have a five meter restraining order. The closest they’ve been was when Lance handed him the clothes to change into, and even then, he just walked up and tossed them into his arms, not getting _too_ close. They both still don’t trust each other fully enough not to stab the other person in the neck, so keeping their distance feels like the best idea right now.

“So.” Lance starts. “Why don’t you wanna go home?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was really easy writing about pineapple on pizza from BOTH perspectives because I think its gross, but like I don't hate it too much? anyways give comments and kudos I love you and thanks for reading <3


	2. Eggs, Blankets, and Sleepless Nights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge is a concerned grandma
> 
> Hunk is a hungover bum
> 
> Lance isn't dead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> enjoy~ :)

 

 

 

“I just.. Really really can’t go home right now.” Keith sighs rubbing his eyes. 

“And why is that?” Lance questions.

“They don’t want to see me, and I don’t want to see them. Simple.”

“And why is that?” He repeats, tilting his head.

“I-..” Keith starts, but then just puts his face in his hands. “It’s complicated.” He snaps, his voice muffled by his hands.

They both sit in an awkward silence for a few seconds. _Jeez._ What has gotten into this dude? He obviously has to be careful about what he says to him or else, who knows? He might go absolutely insane and bash Lance’s skull in. Okay maybe he’s being dramatic, but this Keith guy seems pretty sensitive.

“Did your parents _just_ kick you out? And you.. came here?”

“No.. I haven’t seen them in a whole year. I’ve been staying with my uncle, but… he..” Keith pauses.

“He what?”

“He got really really sick, and like, had to move closer to my family.” Keith keeps touching his face, obviously very nervous and shy about what he’s telling Lance. He looks like he hasn’t opened up about it in a long time. “And I didn’t go with because...well. Y’know.”

“ _Ahhh….”_

“But can we not talk about this? I really just want to get through the night.” Keith quickly says before Lance can continue prying anything else out of him.

“Your wish is my command.” Lance sighs, slightly defeated, as he begins to pour himself another glass of wine.

 

Keith watches as the red liquid streams into the glass, making slight splashes up the side. Wine sounds like a really good _medicine_ to him right now. He’s been through _hell_ today and could really use something to take the edge off. But is he going to ask Lance if he could have some? _Of course not!_  The best he could do is just wait for him to offer.

Apparently his staring is extremely noticeable because when his gaze switches up to Lance, he’s staring back, directly at him, chuckling slightly.

“You really need to get better at just asking for things.” Lance rolls his eyes ever so slightly, gets up, and walks into the kitchen.

He comes out with a wine glass that is smaller than the one he is using, but to Keith, it’s still a wine glass nonetheless. He grabs the bottle and pours it into the glass until it’s only about one third full.

“Now I’m on my last bottle, so this is all you’re gonna get dude.” He tells him, handing him the glass. “And don’t spill. Pidge and Hunk are gonna kill me if they see another red stain on the carpet.”

“Thanks.” Keith slightly smiles, but then raises an eyebrow. “Pidge and Hunk?”

Lance shoots him a look of confusion before he realizes and slaps his palm to his forehead. “Oh! Yeah. I have roommates. I don’t think I told you did I?”

“Where are they?” He asks, taking his first sip of wine, then letting out a deep exhale of relief. Keith feels like an alcoholic, but like he said, _wine is his medicine right now._

“Clubbing. Pidge just turned 18 so, y’know...” He pauses for a second. “You’re damn lucky _I_ didn’t go with them.”

“I guess I am...” Keith says softly as he takes another sip of wine, feeling a soothing warming sensation forming in his chest, slightly and temporarily melting his problems away.

 

The two continue to sip wine in almost complete silence, still sitting as far away from each other in the room as physically possible. They _may_ have moved about a foot closer to each other than they originally were before, but there is still a lot of trust that needs to be gained.

Lance then remembers that he needs to update Hunk on what’s going on, so he takes out his phone, but there’s already a message waiting for him.

 

**Hunk**

> _Hey, we are gonna be heading back soon_

**Lance**

> _Alright_ _coolio._

_ >Also I found out some deets. _

_ >So like apparently his family doesn’t want him around?? _

_ >And he was staying with his uncle, but his uncle apparently got really sick and had to move back with his family. _

_ >Now he’s like roaming the streets i guess??? _

**Hunk**

> _why dofsn’t his family want him around?_

**Lance**

_ >I dont know?? _

_ >he wouldnt tell me _

**Hunk**

> _weird, well we re on our way back nowwwww_

**Lance**

> _I’d like to assume that Pidge is driving, correct?_

_ >CORRECT? _

**Hunk**

_ > Of course Pidge is driving you dumbass _

**La** **nce**

_ >Good. _

“I’m going to try and get some sleep.” Keith says, breaking Lance’s gaze on his phone screen.“Hey, do you happen to have an extra phone charger anywhere around here that I could borrow for the night?” he asks, fidgeting his hands and gazing at the floor once again.

“Uh.. Yeah. There should be one in the room you’re staying in.” Lance says, remembering that Shiro probably never took his phone charger with him when he left to go live with his girlfriend.

“Ok. G-.. Night.” Keith says awkwardly, debating if he should add the word _‘good’_ or not, but it just ends up sounding really weird.

“Night.”

After the bedroom door shuts, the room fills with silence once again. The same silence that filled the room before Keith came along and disrupted Lance’s night. He stares down at the pizza box on the table, the mostly empty bottle of wine, and the remote on the arm of the recliner, and thinks: If nobody had showed up at his door, he would be still sitting in the chair finishing off his pizza right now. He would also probably be two or three episodes further into The Bachelorette than he is right now.

Why did this have to happen to _him?_ Why couldn’t this dude just have knocked on a different house that had somebody home? Why did _literally all of his neighbors_ have to be gone on this night in particular? This situation threw his night off so much, and he didn’t like it one bit. This was supposed to be _his_ night, and instead here he is helping some _bum_ by opening up his home. It’s okay though. He’s sure Hunk and Pidge will go clubbing a different night, and he can stay home and have his little middle-aged woman party all over again.

 

➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶

 

“So… There’s just a _guy_ asleep in Shiro’s old room right now?” Pidge asks, trying to make sense of what the hell is going on.

“Yeah, guess so. Lance’ll tell us more.” Hunk slurs, pulling his keys out of his pocket.

A dark navy blue color is slowly filling in the previously pitch black night sky. Just _barely_ though. Pidge and Hunk have successfully spent the _whole_ night at a club. Hunk was never able to do it because he would always end up getting way too tired at around two AM, but having Pidge there really helped. She was basically a human version of a can of Red Bull and that really kept Hunk going.

Now they’re finally returning home, and don’t know what to expect. Lance gave Hunk _some_ details but they still have a million questions. He hasn’t received a text from Lance in about a half hour, so what if the stranger killed him with a knife within that time? Probably not, but like, its possible isn’t it?

As they approach the front door, Hunk drunkenly digs for his key in his pocket and it’s definitely taking him a few seconds longer than it would take sober Hunk. He _is_ beginning to sober up a little bit (he thinks?), but not completely. Maybe he actually isn’t sobering up, and he’s just feeling really tired instead. The car ride home was definitely not enough time for him to be normal again, but it _was_ enough time for him to become sleepy.

Before he could even insert the key into the door, Lance swings it open, looking really happy to see them. _He’s alive!_ He has no scratches, bruises, or anything that suggests that he got into a fight, just his crystal clear blemishless skin, which is relieving to see.

“Hey guys!” He greets, then turns to Pidge, “ _Ooooo_ How was it? Did you find a bunch of hoes?”

Pidge giggles and winks, “You know it!” holding up her arm, showing him all of the sloppily written phone numbers on it that she most likely never will text.

The two step into the house and go right to the dining room table. It’s almost like they _knew_ they were going to be having a little ‘ _household meeting_ ’ when everybody was home. Pidge and Hunk stare at Lance, waiting for him to spill everything.

“So as you both know, there’s somebody sleeping in Shiro’s old room right now-”

Pidge cuts him off, “Yeah! What happened? Where did he come from? Who-”

“Pidge I will tell you guys everything! Calm down.” Lance chuckles, kicking her foot. “So. I’d just gotten the pizza, the _pineapple_ pizza..” he smirks at Hunk. Hunk crosses his arms and makes a gag noise with his mouth. “..and like I accidentally didn’t give the driver his pen back. And, I thought the knock at the door was going to be the driver again asking if I’d seen his pen, but.. It wasn’t?” Pidge and Hunk let out light gasps, like they are listening to Lance telling a scary story at a bonfire in the middle of the night at summer camp. “It was this random dude and he said he needed a place to stay for the night, and I couldn’t just _say no_ , so now he’s in our house.”

“Do you know what happened to him? Like why he needed a place to stay?” Pidge asks with a hint of concern.

“Not really. He said that he _just couldn’t go home to his family_ or something. He never told me why, and he didn’t seem to wanna talk about it. He’d apparently not seen his family for a whole year, and had been living with his uncle. But his uncle got sick and had to move back in with the family.”

“Why didn’t he just go with them?” Hunk itches his eye, trying to stay awake.

“Because his uncle moved back in with his family Hunk what don’t you understand?” Lance laughs.

“Ohhhh. Okay. How long is he going to stay here?”

“Until morning, then he’ll be gone, so don’t worry too much. It’s not like we adopted a child or anything.” Lance chuckles lightly, trying to lighten the mood.

Pidge squints her eyes, “Wait, where’s he gonna go after he leaves?”

“I don’t know? Not here. He probably has a plan.”

Lance knows what Pidge is going to try and do: If Keith doesn’t have a plan on where he going in the morning, she will ask him to stay as long as he needs until he gets back on his feet. Pidge is one of the nicest people he knows, and she is studying Psychology, so she cares a lot about people and their feelings. This surprised Lance and Hunk because they totally would’ve expected her to take on some sort of engineering degree because she is all _techy_ and stuff, but apparently not.

“We should make sure. I don’t want to send him off if he’s just gonna wander the streets some more.” Pidge explains, adjusting her glasses back into place on her face.

“We still don’t know if he’s a _safe_ person Pidge, he might still be plotting a way to kidnap us or some shit.” Lance insists.

Just as Lance finishes talking, the door to the room where Keith is staying opens. He walks out and his eyes are squinting. It doesn’t look like he had been asleep, but rather his eyes are being blinded by the light in the dining room. Had he been awake this whole time? What if he could hear them having a conversation about how he could be a killer? Eh, these walls are pretty thick.

He’s moderately startled when he sees _three_ people sitting at the table instead of just Lance. His face flushes slightly at the sight of them. “Hey. Uh. Sorry to interrupt. I was-”

Pidge jumps out of her seat. “Hi! I’m Pidge.” She holds out her hand for him to shake. He just stares at the open hand for a second before he realizes what she is trying to do, and finally grabs it and gives it a loose shake.

“I’m Keith.” His voice is a little bit shaky and anxious. “Do you have any extra blankets? I’m a little cold.”

Without skipping a beat, Pidge runs up to the linen closet in the hallway opens it. “Of course we do!” She grabs what seems like four different plush throw blankets, and plants them nicely in Keith’s arms.

“Thanks!” Keith says in a more enthusiastic voice than he ever used when talking to Lance, although it’s not much. He turns back and begins to walk back into the dark bedroom.

“No problem! Get some rest!”

“Night.” The door shuts, granting Pidge, Hunk, and Lance their privacy back at the dining room table.

Pidge is just naturally really really nice to strangers. If she would’ve been home instead of Lance when he showed up at their door, Keith would probably be having a spa day right now. Pidge would’ve made sure he was 100% comfortable, and hell, probably would’ve ended up being his best friend. She is _such_ a people person, and it baffles everybody how good she is at being nice.

“He seems pretty harmless.” Pidge confirms, sitting back down at the table. “He looks almost skinnier than you Lance!”

“Hey! I’m _not_ even that skinny! I’m just really tall okay?”

“Mhmm whatever helps you sleep at night.” Hunk laughs, but he’s laughing _at_ Lance, and _with_ Pidge. Lance lets out an annoyed groan, but it’s obviously sarcastic.

“I think we should get some sleep. Maybe one of us could wake up early so that Keith isn’t the only one awake? That would be kind of weird for him.” Pidge suggests.

“Isn’t he just leaving in the morning though?” Hunk asks.

“Well we have to feed him breakfast! We can’t just let him leave without a proper meal.” Pidge says seeming even more like a concerned grandmother. “So which one of us should wake up early to cook?” She stares directly at Hunk as she speaks.

The two boys stare at her with a _you should be the one to wake up early_ look, not saying anything. “Don’t you all jump up at once. Fine.” Pidge deadpans, taking out her phone and setting an alarm for seven AM, which is literally two hours away.

They all disperse to their seperate rooms to sleep, but of course, Lance has to go into the bathroom and do his nightly skin care routine. He washes his face with a green tea exfoliating scrub, then takes a cotton pad and dabs some _alcohol-free_ toner all over his face in upward strokes, and then finishes it all off with some of his coconut-scented moisturizing cream.

In all honesty, Lance doesn’t even _need_ to care for his face as much as he does, but it doesn’t stop him from doing it. One time, him and Pidge went camping and he forgot _all_ of his skin-care supplies. He was a complete wreck and probably cried about seven times when he realized he didn’t have it. He ended up going six days without any sort of face scrubs or moisturizer, and in the end he only got _one_ itty bitty little tiny blemish on his cheek. It was barely even noticeable, and it didn’t even turn red like normal pimples do, but it still ruined Lance’s mood for the next week. Pidge constantly reassured him that it wasn’t noticeable, but he wouldn’t listen. That’s also why Lance never goes camping anymore.

Lance finally lets his body relax when he plops down on his bed. The whole night he had been feeling tense, and _on edge_ because of Keith being in his house. He always had a fist clenched when he was in the same room as him, ready to attack if things turned sour. But hey, Keith didn’t actually do anything shady. _Yet_... Lance would like to think that he’s a nice guy and is being genuinely honest when he says that he just needs a place to stay, but he’s always one to be prepared for any situation.

Lance takes out his phone and decides to text his old roommate Shiro about what’s going on.

**Lance**

> _Hey man, there’s a stranger sleeping in your old room tonight lmao._

 

The reply comes fast which doesn’t surprise Lance at all because he _knows_ Shiro is the type to be up this early on a Saturday morning.

 

**Shiro**

> _No way! You guys got a new roommate?_

**Lance**

> _Not really…?_

 _ >This guy just showed up and said he needed a place to crash so we let him stay _.

**Shiro**

> _Oh shit be careful. Don’t let him slaughter you guys. And make sure he doesn’t trash my old room!_

**Lance**

> _Your old room is already trashed lmao._

**Shiro**

> _lol fuck you._

**Lance**

> _YOU SAID YOU WERE GONNA COME BACK AND CLEAN IT_

_ >TWO. MONTHS. AGO. _

**Shiro**

> _I will I promise! Maybe this week?_

**Lance**

> _Sure_

 

Lance puts down his phone, sinks into his mattress, and smiles at the fact that he doesn’t have to wake up at seven AM. _Haha fuck you Pidge._

 

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Keith thought the extra blankets would help, but he still can’t get to sleep. At least he isn’t cold though... He honestly thinks he’s just too exhausted to sleep. There’s this period of time in between _energized_ and _tired_ where sleep is actually possible. But if you’re too energized, you can’t sleep, and if you’re too tired, you can’t sleep either. He’s missed his chance, and now sleep is going to be increasingly difficult. He thinks about going to go ask for some melatonin, but he feels like he’s bothered and burdened them _way_ too much tonight.

His phone has been on the charger for awhile now, but it’s one of those shitty phones where even if it’s plugged in, it still has to charge up to a certain percentage before it can even turn on. To his surprise, the screen lights up when he presses the power button after ten failed attempts. _Finally_ . He doesn’t even know why he’s starting his phone really. There will probably just be zero notifications like usual, and he would probably just waste more time on it when he could be getting some shuteye. He has to leave in the morning, so he might as well get some rest so he isn’t _completely_ exhausted, but instead, he finds himself unlocking his phone.

It vibrates twice upon starting, which startles Keith because he’s not used to his phone making _vibrations._ When he unlocks it, he’s not surprised to see a text from his brother. He’s really the only one in his family that actually tries to contact him anymore. He never answers because he honestly feels like his parents are _making_ him text him or something because they have ‘too much dignity’ to contact him themselves. Sometimes he wants to respond, but he just doesn’t want his family to judge him even more. _They_ were the ones that told him to leave. Even though they probably didn’t mean it completely, Keith still took it to heart and took his belongings and left.

 

**Shiro (DON’T REPLY)**

_ >Keith. _

_ >Please just answer. I just want to make sure you’re okay. _

 

Keith rolls his eyes at the sight of the message, and turns off his phone right away. Maybe he should just get some sleep. That’s a way better idea than wasting time on his phone...

 

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With what seems like a blink of an eye, sunlight has fully filled the room, filtered slightly by the curtains on the window. Keith is baffled at how this happened without him noticing. He swears it was just pitch black out like five minutes ago? He didn’t even feel like he slept at all, he just felt like he was resting his eyes. But now, it’s morning, and the angry sun is up and ready to greet him.

He sits up, and contemplates whether he should leave the room or not. He’s afraid that if he walks out, they will just tell him to leave because it’s morning. To be fair, it _is_ what he agreed to. He said he just needed somewhere to crash for the night, and so he did. He crashed in this room, and now he should be on his way. But on his way _where?_ He hasn’t really thought about what he was going to do when morning rolled around. He really doesn’t have anywhere to go, but he didn’t have anywhere to go yesterday either, and he still found _this_ place, so he could do it all over again, right?

Something is telling him that he needs to get out of bed and go into the living room because he can’t stay in there forever, so he does. He honestly expects nobody to be awake because of how late they all went to sleep, but instead he is met with the girl he met last night, _Pidge? Or something?_ She is standing in front of the stove cooking some eggs in a skillet. Keith isn’t usually a fan of eggs, but _boy_ do they smell amazing. The pizza that he ate yesterday was already long gone and he has the uncomfortable feeling of hunger radiating through his stomach once again.

“Goodmorning! How’d ya sleep?” Pidge smiles at him, stirring the uncooked eggs in the pan.

Keith tries to process what she’s saying to him. It’s not what he expected at all. He was expecting to walk out and hear ‘ _so when are you leaving?’_ or something like that, but that’s _not_ what happened. Her voice is so welcoming, almost as if she’s happy to have him as a guest in her home?

“Pretty good.” Keith lies, not wanting to complain. He couldn’t just say he slept terribly because that would be rude right?

“That’s good to hear! Well I’m making some breakfast. I hope you like scrambled eggs, bacon, and pancakes!” Pidge raises her voice enthusiastically.

Keith sits down timidly at the dining room table. “That- That sounds amazing. Thank you.” He finds himself saying, expecting to be saying something along the lines of ‘ _I’m sorry I’ll be leaving pretty soon here’,_ but again, that doesn’t happen.

“Hunk and Lance are still asleep, but I thought I would wake up early to cook some breakfast for everybody. Hunk is usually the one that cooks anyway so it’s good that I get to cook every now and then.” She says with a hint of passive aggressiveness in her voice, but nothing negative towards Keith. Pidge talks to him as she cooks as if she’s known him for years, and they are just two old friends catching up. She’s really good at doing this sort of thing. Pidge isn’t shy at all and always can easily open up to strangers. She never finds herself indulging an any sort of awkward silence because she _always_ has something to say.

Keith lets out a slight awkward chuckle at most of the things she says, not really knowing what to say. It’s not like he needs to say anything anyway because it seems like Pidge could just talk on for hours and hours while somebody else listened without uttering a word.

“So I don’t want to sound invasive on your privacy at all, but what made you show up here? Were you lost? It’s totally fine that you’re here by the way! I’m just slightly curious is all!” She turns her head back, smiling at him. She already knew _a little bit_ about why he’s here, but she wants him to explain himself, and not go completely off of what Lance had said.

“I’m just trying to find a place to stay because my uncle moved back.” He says, giving a very vague answer and unintentionally opening up the opportunity for Pidge to ask seven hundred more questions.

“Hmm. Where did your uncle move?” Pidge asks, her tone switching from enthusiastic to warm and concerned.

“Back with my family.”

“Oh! Okay. Well, why didn’t you go with him? And if if don’t want to answer something, I won’t pressure you, don’t worry!” She reassures.

“Well uh-. I don’t want to see my family, and they don’t want to see me. We kind of ended on a bad note.” Keith awkwardly spits out.

“Well, if you don’t mind me asking, what happened?” Her voice sounds so _safe_ and _warm_. She sounds like she actually is genuinely curious about his life, and isn’t trying to judge him, which is something Keith isn’t used to.

“About a year ago, they found out that I was-” He starts, but hears a pair of footsteps coming down the stairs, so he stops speaking.

“Morning!” Hunk yells as soon as he reaches the bottom. He glances over and sees something terrifying. “Is this _Pidge? Cooking? Breakfast?”_ He widens his eyes.

“You’re oddly wide awake and chipper for somebody who got absolutely shitfaced last night.” Pidge deadpans.

Keith turns around to see the buff looking guy with a headband towering over him.

Hunk nudges Keith’s shoulder. “Be careful eating her food, it’s _poisonous_ half of the time.” He says quietly, breaking out into laughter.

“Shut _up_ Hunk! Not all of us went to culinary school.” She rolls her eyes and smiles. “I’m getting better okay?”

Hunk’s voice is still directed at Keith. “Once she managed to mess up _cereal._ How do you mess up cereal? It’s impossible!”

“Hey, I learned my lesson! I won’t add as much milk next time.” She groans, which turns into a giggle.

Despite his current situation with everything, Keith can feel a slight smile creeping up on his face as well.

Pidge walks past the table and leans into Keith’s ear and whispers, “We’ll talk more after Breakfast.”

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm actually really happy that anybody is actually reading this? Like I was under the impression that whatever I post on here will get maybe like two or three hits at most but I guess I was wrong and I'm happy you guys are here!! :D
> 
> seriously when I saw that somebody commented I screamed a little <3
> 
> this chapter was really fun to write because it's kind of a mess, but all the chapters are going to be a mess so im excited.
> 
> give kudos and leave comments, love you all <3


	3. Breakfast, Burgers, and Break-ups

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith feels bad
> 
> Pidge is still a concerned grandma
> 
> Lance is a mess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, this chapter is an emotional boi. ~
> 
> Also everything that happened today relating to season 7 is stressing me out so muchhh like I have so many questions! Guess all we can do is wait. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Anyways, Thank you so much for all the support about this fic so far! I finally have a plan on where I'm going with this, and I'm really excited to see how it turns out!!
> 
> Enjoy :)

Based on how Hunk is describing Pidge’s cooking, Keith is expecting to be served a dish that looks like it’s been prepared by a contestant on Worst Cooks In America. Usually when somebody messes up _cereal,_ it says a lot about their abilities in the kitchen. However, when the plate full of food is put down in front of him, he’s actually genuinely surprised at how amazing it looks. The eggs are fluffy and rich, instead of flat and rubbery. The pancakes are thick and have a nice, smooth, bronze tint to them, rather than flat, pale and lifeless. And the bacon-... The bacon is a _little_ _bit_ on the crispy side, but it looks like it’s still edible. Probably.

Okay, other than the bacon, everything looks absolutely marvelous. The first thing he tastes are the eggs. As he’s chewing, he notices that they actually _feel_ and _taste_ as fluffy as they look. Some cooks have a decieving way of making something _appear_ good, but in reality it tastes like absolute trash and has a very unsatisfying texture. Pidge executed a a flawless appearance, but also managed to carry the flawlessness into the taste and texture as well, which made it even better.

Before he could take a bite out of the pancakes, Hunk opens up the refrigerator and pulls out a fancy looking glass bottle with a thick brown liquid inside of it. “I have some maple syrup. It’s _real_ maple syrup.” He raises a finger, putting emphasis on the word ‘ _real’_.

Pidge scoffs at him, “I can’t believe you spent thirty bucks on that thing, when Aunt Jemima is $2.99.”

Hunk opens the glass bottle and pours a small amount into a gravy boat sitting in the middle of the table. “And the extra twenty seven dollars were totally worth it!” He exclaims.

The pancakes are just as impressive as the eggs. They’re extremely light and rich, _but not too rich._ They’re just rich enough to leave a pleasant flavor lingering on Keith’s tongue for a few seconds following each bite. As he pours the fancy maple syrup on the pancakes, it seeps into them nicely, leaving them saturated, but not completely drenched. They keep their shape and don’t fall apart as he cuts them with a fork, slicing nicely and cleanly, making them overall easy to eat.

Now this is a _meal._ Keith is eating an actual home cooked _meal_ . Even though it’s only breakfast, its enough to completely satisfy him. When he was living with his uncle, there would rarely ever be any home cooked meals. Keith never tried to cook anything because he never had the motivation, and his uncle would always just want to go _out_ to eat or go through a drive-thru somewhere. Any food that they actually _did_ have at the house was just a frozen TV dinner that he could reheat in the microwave. This is probably the first home cooked meal that he’s had since he moved out of his parents house. That’s something his parents did do _very_ well. They could cook up some _mad_ meals. Keith honestly thinks he had to have lost at least twenty pounds when he moved in with his uncle. He was never overweight or anything when he lived with them, he was just very well fed. He always had three meals per day, and never had or wanted to skip a meal.

He kinda misses it… having a home cooked meal every night; having two parents who cared and loved him with their entire heart. Keith was the younger child, so he was always extremely spoiled by his parents, and never had to fight for attention. Christmas was always a fun time too because he would be quite literally _bathing_ in gifts because his parents cared so much about him. He really kind of misses all that attention, and- _No. No. Stop it Keith._ He flushes the memories out of his head. _They don’t want you around anymore. You hurt them. Move on._

“Is it good?” Pidge asks, concerned, noticing Keith hasn’t touched his food in over five minutes and has a growing look of displeasure on his face.

He looks up and notices that Pidge and Hunk are nearly completely done with their plates already, and Keith has barely touched his. “What? Yes. It’s amazing actually!” He enthusiastically states, shoving more scrambled eggs into his mouth.

“That’s good to hear!” Pidge smiles.

“You don’t have to _lie_ , man.” Hunk interjects, shoving Pidge’s shoulder lightly.

Keith laughs slightly. “If I think _this_ is good, I have really high expectations for _your_ cooking.”

He lightly gasps at what comes out of his mouth. Did he just really say something moderately humorous? To Hunk? Somebody he barely even knows?

“I’m sure I will meet those expectations!” Hunk smirks.

“Okay, being completely honest, Hunk does cook _really_ good food.” Pidge nods. “ _Would you like to stay for dinner?_ ” Pidge invites. “Unless you already have plans, but if you don’t, then we would love to have you.”

_What?_

Keith internally chuckles at the fact that Pidge thinks he actually might have _plans._ “I-.. Are you sure?” He asks, obviously feeling like _even more_ of a burden than he did before, which he didn’t think was possible.

“Yeah! We have enough room. Hunk has to go shopping tonight anyway because apparently we don’t have anything here, so we’ll have plenty of food!”

“Well. I’d love to.” Keith says, thankfully.

“Awesome! You’ll get to see what the mighty Hunk can prepare!” Hunk says in a stupid accent. Pidge shoves his shoulder lightly chuckling.

Another pair of footsteps can be heard from the top of the stairs; they sound a bit quieter than Hunk’s footsteps. Down comes Lance in a pair of blue skinny jeans and a black button up work shirt.

“Morning!” He smiles happily, walking towards the kitchen.

“Morning Lance, there’s breakfast if you’re interested!” Pidge says, scanning her hand over all of the food.

Lance turns to look at Keith, and his expression instantly falls into a look of seriousness.

“ _Why is he still here_ ?” Keith can hear Lance say at a volume just over a whisper, but not quiet enough to _not_ hear him.

“He’s staying for dinner.” Pidge happily replies.

Lance stares at her for a few seconds with a confused and disappointed expression on his face. “I thought he was leaving in the morning?”

His voice is a little bit louder this time, as he appears to stop caring about his volume.

“I invited him to stay. It’s fine Lance.”

“ _Whatever_. I gotta go to work. Bye.” He breathes, grabbing his car keys from the front counter, and disappearing out of the back door, shutting it slightly harder than usual behind him.

An awkward silence floods the room as soon as Lance is gone. Pidge turns to look at Keith with a reassuring look in her eyes, but it doesn’t help the sudden sinking, burning feeling in his stomach.

Keith stands up, defeated, “Maybe I should go-”

He’s cut off by Pidge hastily walking towards him. “No! No it’s fine. Really.”

“But he-”

“Don’t listen to Lance. He’s just gonna take some getting used to. He’s _really_ moody sometimes.”

Keith stares at her for a few seconds in shame. Now he _really_ feels like a complete inconvenience to these people. He’s getting in the way of Lance’s daily routine now, and that's the last thing he wanted to do. He thought that _maybe_ , it would be possible to get out of this situation without invading too much on anybody’s lives, but apparently he isn’t succeeding. He just wanted a place to crash, and then he’d be gone, and that’s it. This isn’t what he wanted.

“I really don’t know. I feel like I’m-”

Pidge cuts him off again. “You’re not invading. We love having your company, and we want to help.”

“Are you sure?” Keith is feeling light tears forming in his eyes, but they aren’t heavy enough to make them stream down his cheek.

“Yes. I’m sure.”

Hunk stands up. “So Keith, What do you want for dinner?”

 

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Work is slow.

Lance has spent the past hour just restocking bottles that really don’t need to be restocked, wiping down the already spotless counter, and cleaning glasses over and over again. Usually this time of the afternoon is slow, but today, it’s just _really_ slow. He can’t complain though. It’s not like he’s getting paid any less. Maybe a few tips less, but that doesn’t really affect his paycheck too much. Usually bars are really dead during the daytime anyway, so what does he expect? It’ll probably pick up quite a bit during the last hour of his shift. He gets off at 7, and quite a few people start drinking as early as 6, so he’ll be able to reel in at least a few tips.

During his shift, he can’t help but feel a slight sensation of anger pulsating through his stomach. When he’s not helping customers, he falls back into the thought of the random homeless boy named Keith staying at his house. He gets slightly irritated at the thought of seeing him _still there_ at 11:00 in the morning, when he said he just wanted a place to crash for the night. And now, Pidge says he’s staying for dinner? How is he just going to show up at their door and butt into their lives like that? Sure, helping him out for one night was fine. He would just go inside and sleep, freshen up, and be on his way, and Lance was honestly happy to help him out with that. But now, all of a sudden he’s _still_ there? That doesn’t sit right with him. Something is just _really really_ fishy about this Keith guy, and Lance does _not_ trust him, regardless of what Pidge says.

His thoughts are interrupted by a woman sitting down at the bar. Eager to have something to do, Lance rushes over and begins greeting her and taking her order.

“Hello! What can I get for-” He pauses, realising that the person who sat down in front of him is extremely familiar. “For you?” He finishes, trying to cover up the pause. Of course she’s familiar. The stupid purple colored contacts, the pale skin, the long straight blonde hair. It’s all _too_ familiar.

“Lance? Oh my gosh! Hi!”

Fuck. He knew he would run into his ex again _somewhere_.

  


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**Six Months Prior**

 

When Lance hears a knock at the door, butterflies are sent flying through his stomach. Somehow, even after three whole months of dating, the butterflies still never fail to find their way inside of him whenever Nyma returns home from work. He practically leaps out of his chair and rushes to the door, pressing his eye against the peephole. The same beautiful purple eyes and long flowing blond hair fill his field of vision. He slowly, and gently opens up the door.

“Babeeee! You’re home.” He says warmly, going in for a much needed hug. He hasn’t seen her for like _eight hours_ ; he really needs a hug from her.

“I’m home.” She says back, accepting the hug from Lance.

This is a part of their daily routine. Lance works during the day, so he gets home around four o’clock, while Nyma doesn’t get home until around seven. The three hours in between are always the hardest for him, as he waits patiently for his beautiful girlfriend to return home. The highlight of his day is looking through that peephole and seeing her standing there patiently waiting for him to open the door. As soon as he lets her in, they always fall into the same gentle embrace, and then peck each other lightly on the lips. Then they go on to ask about each other's days, and just enjoy each other's company. Every payday, she’d come home to Lance wearing a fancy outfit, telling her to dress up because he’s taking her out for a romantic night on the town. Other times she would come home to the smell of a freshly cooked meal which Lance prepared with love, planning accordingly for it to be ready precisely as soon as she returned home.

Lance goes in for the usual peck on the lips as she’s still standing in the doorway, except this time, she doesn’t kiss back nearly as hard as she usually does. Lance shrugs it off though because maybe she’s just tired. Working at Sephora, customers can be _quite_ the handful sometimes, so he gets it if she’s not feeling it.

“How was your day, babe?” He asks lovingly, rubbing his hand lightly on her shoulder.

“It was alright. Kind of busy.” She says, slightly avoiding eye contact, putting her purse down on the kitchen table. Lance waits patiently for her to ask the same question back to him, but for some reason, _it doesn’t happen._

He already had his answer planned out too for how his day was. _It was kind of busy, but he enjoyed it because it made the time go faster_. But silence fills the air, and she doesn’t ever ask Lance how his day was, which strikes him as odd.

“Is everything okay?” Lance blurts out, knowing that something is a bit off.

Nyma stares downward for a few seconds not saying anything. Lance approaches behind her and gently rests his hand on her shoulder again.

“Babe?” He whispers softly over her shoulder, his breath puffing into her neck.

She lets out a rushed sigh and slowly turns around, resting the palm of her hand on Lance’s shoulder.

“Lance.” She breaths emotionlessly.

Lance begins to feel a sudden wave of panic in his chest. _What? Why are you- Whats going on? Ahhhh, i fucked up didn’t I?_ A bunch of brief thoughts flow through his mind, causing him to feel dizzy with anxiety.

“I need to tell you something.” She adds.

“What’s wrong?” He basically cuts her off, eager to hear whatever’s going on.

She takes in a long, deep breath, and lets it out in an emotional sigh. “I.. I need some time.”

Lance can feel his insides slowly being ripped apart at Nyma’s vagueness. His heart rate is beginning to skyrocket, and he finds himself taking a bunch of gulps of saliva to calm the lump forming in his throat.

“What do you mean?”

“I just.- I dont-” She stutters, then takes another deep breath before continuing. “This relationship is a lot for me right now, and I think I just need some.. _Time.”_ She takes her palm off of Lance’s shoulder.

The lump in Lance’s throat is becoming more defined. He gulps harder, lump growing in his throat with each second that goes by. He feels his eyes begin to saturate, increasingly becoming heavy with tears.

He just stares into her beautiful purple eyes, jumping between what to say. He opens his mouth several times but nothing comes out. Just breathfuls of inaudible sobs are able to escape his mouth.

“I.. What?” Is all he can manage to say. “How long have you-”

“I’ve been feeling _different_ for awhile now.” She cuts him off, again, being extremely vague in her answer.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” He breathes, a tear finally finding its way out of the corner of his eyelid and down his cheek.

Nyma looks down and to the side, and bites her gorgeously pink lip. “I just, felt overwhelmed. I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”

Parts of Lance’s sadness begin to shift to anger, and he lets out a wet scoff. “Then what did you plan on doing? If you didn’t want to hurt my feelings?”

Before she can answer, Lance feels himself taking his arm off of Nyma’s shoulder with a slight shove, and his feet storming right out of the apartment, slamming the door hard behind him.

As soon as the door shuts behind him, he lets his eyes relax, allowing the tears to flow down his cheeks. He lets out short panicked cries, as he storms into the elevator of the apartment complex, praying nobody will join him. When the elevator door shuts, he punches the wall with a downward force, letting out louder and more emotional defeated cries.

_What the hell just happened?!_

He takes out his phone and instantly shoots Hunk, his best friend, a text message.

 

**Lance**

_ >You home? _

**Hunk**

_ >Yeah why? _

**Lance**

_ >I’m coming over _

**Hunk**

_ >Okay. Spending the night? _

**Lance**

_ >More than a night. _

**Hunk**

_What?_

**_INCOMING CALL: Hunk_ **

 

**_CALL ENDED (15:34)_ **

  
  
  


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**Present Day**

  


“Can I just get a rum and coke please?” She asks with the same gentle, slightly high voice that Lance has always missed.

“Of course!” He stutters out, still shaken up from the situation.

Ah. She always _loved_ rum and coke. It was the drink she would order every time when they used to go out drinking together. It was the _first_ drink he bought her when he ran into her at a bar. He knew exactly how she liked them too; one part rum, and five parts Coke.

He makes the drink exactly how she used to like it, and puts it in front of her.

Lance is conflicted on how he feels right now. He’s spent the past six months trying his absolute best to avoid Nyma at all costs, completely cutting her off from his life and putting the thought of her in the far back corners of his mind. Hell, he even stayed home from the club last night because was too nervous he would run into her. If he would’ve just gone with and risked running into her, there wouldn’t be a homeless boy staying in his house right now. Besides, _apparently,_ he was going to run into her anyway today, so he could have dodged a huge bullet by just going to the club.

Now that he’s face to face with her, he actually feels different from how he thought he would feel. He expected to be fueled with anger, and trying his best to hold back all the hurtful words that would have been trying desperately to escape his lips. He thought he would break down crying in front of her, pouring his heart out. But he doesn’t do any of that.

He feels somewhat _comfortable,_ and content _?_ He doesn’t feel the anger he felt six months ago anymore. He feels completely over it. All he can see now is her gorgeous familiar purple eyes and soft fluffy blond streaks of hair. And man, that amazing _body._

“How about another drink? It’s on me.” Lance winks, putting his hand on her shoulder, lightly rubbing it with affection.

 

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After about two hours of constant questioning from Hunk and Pidge, Keith finally decides what he would like to have for dinner. Burgers.

It was hard for Keith to come to that consensus because he is always extremely indecisive. He _is_ somewhat of a picky eater, but he doesn’t ever let that impact what’s being served. Back home, he would always just order a pizza, or cook something else for himself if he didn’t like what was his parents were cooking. Of course, he would most definitely eat whatever Hunk makes _tonight_ , because the last thing he wants to do is come off as rude, and he really needs to savor every meal he gets. But Pidge and Hunk _insisted_ that he picked what was going to be for dinner.

He is totally not used to making the executive decision about what to eat. It’s always hard for him to do because he fears that whatever he suggests, somebody else won’t like or agree with it, and they’ll shut down his ideas, which would really impact his self-esteem.

“Alright. I’m off to the store. I’ll be back soon!” Hunk yells from the hallway, waving goodbye, followed by the sound of the door closing behind him.

“Hunk makes really good burgers. You won’t be disappointed!” Pidge exclaims, raising a finger.

“I’m excited to find out!” Keith says happily.

He’s found himself able to speak clearer and more coherently while around Pidge and Hunk. In the morning, he could barely say two words without stuttering over them, or feeling a warming sensation in his cheeks. Now here he is showing actual _emotion_ in his words, and speaking with sentences. He’s actually pretty proud of himself.

Pidge squints at Keith and smirks. “So. Now we can… _talk.”_ She says lowly, intertwining her fingers with one another, and resting them on the table.

It takes him a second to understand what she’s saying, but then he remembers the conversation they were having before breakfast. Keith nods and smiles awkwardly. “Yup. I guess… we can.”

She looks up at the ceiling like she’s trying to recall something. “Hmmm where did we leave off? Oh yeah! So…” she starts. “What happened? Why did they kick you out?” Her voice switches to a comforting tone, and she leans closer to him, ready to listen.

Keith looks down for a second. This is it. Nothing to disrupt their conversation this time. Just Pidge and Keith sitting at a table with nothing to distract them. He goes in for a deep breath to prepare himself.

“They kicked me out because they found out that.. _I’m gay..”_ The words ripple off of his tongue in a smooth confident breath of air.

It feels weird to say it because he doesn’t think he’s ever actually muttered those words before in his entire life. It actually feels really relieving in a way. He doesn’t know why, but after he says it, he doesn’t feel his cheeks burning red. He doesn’t feel a twisting sensation in his chest. He doesn’t feel a sudden ripple of regret pulsing through his body. He actually feels a weight lifted off of his chest. He feels _free,_ and he hasn’t felt that way in a long, _long_ time.

Pidge’s eyes light up, and she raises her body out of the chair, holding out her arms to Keith.

“Oh my god! Im. I, Keith!” She shouts through her teeth, pulling Keith into a tight hug. The hug takes him by surprise, as it takes him a second to realize what‘s happening. He hugs her back lightly, too shy to squeeze as hard as she is. “I know I’ve barely even known you for one day, but I’m still so happy and proud of you!” She pulls away and internally screams a little bit more before she sits back down. Her expression quickly shifts from happiness and excitement to sadness and concern. “But. You’re family kicked you out because you’re _gay?_ ”

Keith looks down and bites his lip. “Somewhat.” He sits back down and swallows. “Well. I never really _told_ them. They kind of walked in on me while I was kissing this one guy.” He lets another sigh escape his nostrils. “And they just told me to _go._ They pointed to the door and kept screaming at me after that.” Keith puts his hands over his face and wipes his eyes. “And so I… I went.” His gaze is set on nothing In particular, just staring deeply into his memories.

“Oh my god Keith. I’m really..” Pidge swallows. I’m really sorry you have to go through this...”

Keith is emotional, but he feels _relieved._ He said to Lance originally that he really didn’t want to talk about his family problems, but honestly, talking about them makes him feel a thousand times better. There’s a huge weight lifted off of his chest that had been there, pinning him down, for the past year. He never talked about anything while he was living with his uncle. He just lived life with him without bringing up any sort of family problems. His doesn’t think his uncle actually necessarily knew what happened. He just asked if he could stay with him one day and he said yes. No questions asked.

“Have they tried to contact you?”

“Ehhh. Not really. The only one who’s tried is my brother, but I don’t really ever answer.”

Pidge raises her concerned eyebrow. “Why not?”

He coughs softly, clearing his throat from his slight internal crying. “I just kinda feel like my parents are telling him to contact me, because they don’t want to.”  He shrugs. “Or something.” A half inaudible mutter escapes his lips.

“ _Ahhhhh.”_ Pidge nods. “That’s reasonable.” She runs her hands through her hair.

“Yeah…” Keith says, holding back the lump in his throat.

“Well, I know we only said you could stay for dinner, but you do realize that you can _stay here as long as you need to right?”_

As Pidge speaks, the door unlocks, and opens. Lance steps in with a few dark hickeys pasted on his neck, accompanied by an excited look on his face. “Guess who's got a date tomorro-”, but instantly stops and glares at Pidge after he processes what she said. “Pidge, what did you just say?”

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have this Voltron Hand book that I got online, and inside it says that Lance's favorite food is garlic knots, but there's no info about Keith's favorite food? So I just had to guess.. He would like burgers right?
> 
>  
> 
> give comments and kudos <3 love you all


	4. Bubbles, Bread, and Rootbeer Floats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is confused 
> 
> Hunk is confident 
> 
> Keith is relieved

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s chapter four! It’s a lil bit longer than the previous ones, so enjoy! 
> 
> also this chapter was written on my cellphone because the WiFi has been down for a few days so I’m sorry if there’s a stray typo or two lol

**15 Years Earlier**

 

“Ready or not, here I come!” Shiro shouts from downstairs with enthusiasm. Keith feels his muscles tense up in anticipation, curling up his body into a ball behind the pile of clothing in his mother’s closet.

Hide and seek with two people is usually pretty boring, but with his brother _Shiro?_ It is an absolute blast. Their house has so many different places to hide! There’s countless nooks and crannies their puny bodies could fit in to, making hide and seek the best pastime for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

He hears hyper footsteps approaching the room. The door hastily opens and heavy breaths and giggles fill the air. Keith can hear him frantically searching around, letting out occasional giggles, and ‘ _I’m gonna find youuuuu’_ s as he looks. Keith is able to see through a small crack in the closet door, peering into the room where Shiro is searching for him and having no luck. He lets out a giggle at all the places Shiro is looking, and it comes out a little bit louder than he expected. He gasps lightly and covers his mouth, but he’s too late.

Before he even knows what’s going on, Shiro is booking it to the closet, and yanking open the door. “I found youuu!” He screams, breaking out into laughter, knowing he’s won.

A loud scream escapes Keith’s lips as his brother pulls him out of the closet by his leg. “Ahhh! No!” He giggles, clenching his fists on the clothes hanging on the rack.

“Keith! Shiro! It’s time for dinner!” Their mom shouts happily from downstairs.

They both scramble off of eachother and bolt down the stairs to the dining room, stumbling over one another, racing to get there first.

Shiro ends up winning because he’s just a little bit faster than Keith. They both take their place at the table, and their mom puts down two plates in front of them.

“I made some fried rice, steak, and vegetables.” She says, walking back to the stove to grab her and her husband a plate of food.

Keith always couldn’t _stand_ vegetables, but there is something about how his mother prepares them that makes them actually really tasty. Today, she made Zucchini, which is one of Keith’s least favorite vegetables, but his mom cut them into fun shapes so that they would be easier to eat.

His family all sits enjoying their food, occasionally exchanging light conversation with one another. Shiro talks about his favorite class at school, and how he’s one of the best kids at kickball. Keith laughs because he knows that _he_ is _way_ better than his brother is.

Shiro begins to blows bubbles into his cup of milk. His mother tells him to stop, but she ends up just laughing along with him as he does it, not seeming to mind after a while.

Keith soon joins in, blowing bubbles through his straw, more intense than his brother does it. It soon turns into a competition on who can blow the most milk bubbles in their glass. This time, Keith wins, making them _even_ because Shiro won the race down the stairs to the dinner table.

Their mother sits back, gazing at her children, smiling contently.

“Let me show you guys how it’s _really_ done.” Their father challenges, cracking his knuckles, and blowing more bubbles into his drink than both of them combined. Keith and Shiro gasp and try harder, but they still can’t blow as much bubbles into their drinks as their dad could.

Soon their mother joins in as well, and all four of them are sitting around the dining room table with their mouths on their straws, blowing bubbles into their drinks, and laughing hysterically.

 

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**Present Day**

 

If Keith wants burgers, Hunk is going to show him _burgers._ He walks down the meat aisle of the grocery store until he comes across the ground beef. He scans over all of his options and chooses to go with only 70% lean so that there’s still some fat in the patties for extra flavor. His hand hovers over the different brands of meat before he finally settles on the most expensive one. _Obviously._ This is the same guy who spent thirty dollars on a bottle of maple syrup, _of course_ he’s going to buy the classier ground beef to impress his new friend!

Well, he doesn’t know if he can refer to Keith as a _friend_ yet, because twenty four hours ago, he didn’t even know the guy existed, but he actually seems pretty damn cool. At first he was super skeptical about him staying at his house, and honestly thought he was secretly going to be a serial killer or something, but he actually seems pretty innocent, and lighthearted. _Besides,_ his arms look like they cant even lift a baby, so he knows he wouldn’t be too hard to take down if he actually was planning to kill them. The more Hunk thinks about it, the more he realizes that he still doesn’t really know what happened to him; what caused him to end up in their house for the night. He hadn’t really had the chance to talk to him about it, and whatever he told Lance was really vague. Hopefully everything is okay with him.

But right now, all he needs to worry about is making sure these burgers knock Keith’s socks off!

He makes his way down the spice aisle and throws about eight different bottles of seasoning into the cart. They need to be packed with flavor, taking his tongue on a _journey_ with every bite!

As he continues around the corner, making his way to the bread aisle to pick up the buns, he hears his name being called from behind him.

“Hunk!”

He twists around to see a familiar face jogging towards him. It’s none other than his old roommate Shiro! “Hey man! How’ve you been!”

Shiro stops, putting a hand on Hunk’s shoulder to catch his breath. “I’ve been alright. How about you?”

“Pretty good.” He moved his arm down on the tube of ground beef and pats it. “Gonna feed them my special burgers tonight. I’ve got an _extra pair of socks_ to knock off this time!”

Shiro raises an eyebrow, but quickly remembers the conversation he had with Lance over text. “Oh yeah! You guys have a _guest_ or something, right?”

“Yeah this guy really needed a place so stay, so we helped him out, and I guess he’s staying for dinner.” Hunk smiles.

“Ah! Cool. He’s replacing me, huh?” Shiro laughs, lightly punching Hunk’s shoulder.

“I guess so!” He then changes the shift of the conversation. “But, how are things going with you? How’s your uh.. _brother?”_

Shiro sighs, his expression dropping a little bit. “He still won’t talk to me.” His hands run through his hair. “And he was staying with his uncle, but my uncle moved in with my parents, so I don’t even know where he is now.”

Hunk puts a hand on Shiro’s shoulder. “Oh man. Really? Sorry to hear that, I didn’t know it’s gotten so bad.”

He looks down, “Yeah, it’s alright. I just hope he’ll talk to me sooner or later…” The words come out in a big sigh, as he crosses his arms.

“Hey man, let me know if I can do anything to help.” Hunk reassures.

Shiro smiles slightly and nods. “Of course.”

“Maybe when you reunite with him, I’ll have him try my killer burgers!” He throws a soft punch into Shiro’s shoulder, lightening the mood. “Hey actually, do you wanna come over for dinner? It’s gonna be good.”

“I totally would, Hunk, but Allura and I have a night out planned.” He smiles.

“Oh! Where ya going this time? The riverside?”

“Nah, Im just taking her for a walk, and we’re gonna end up at this one fancy place, I got it all planned out!” Shiro exclaims enthusiastically, waving his hand through the air.

Hunk laughs, “Well have fun! Anyway I gotta get this shopping done. See you around?”

“Yeah, I’ll see you this week sometime, Lance wants me to come clean my room out.” Shiro says, beginning to part ways with Hunk.

“He’s such a clean freak.” He snorts. “Alright see you soon!”

Hunk turns the corner continuing down the next aisle. What was he getting next? Oh right.

_Bread._

 

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“So lemme get this straight. He’s staying _another_ night? Or _more_?” Lance snaps, slight anger brewing within his voice.

“Calm down Lance. And yes. He is.” Pidge confirms.

“W-why? He said he just needed a place to crash for the night. Not _two_ nights.” He winces.

“He doesn’t have anywhere to go. And it’s not like we don’t have room for him. We have enough space. Why are you so opposed to this?” She questions, raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t know, I just.. don’t trust him completely yet. He might be using us, Pidge.” He shakes his head slowly.

“And what makes you not trust him?”

Lance looks down at the floor, biting his bottom lip vigorously. Now that he’s being asked this question, his mind blanks, and he can’t think of a good reason. “This whole situation is just a big red flag.”

“What do you mean?” She adjusts her glasses.

“We don’t know what his true intentions are. He could be trying to mooch off of us.” He suggests.

Pidge winces at what he says. “You don’t even know what’s going on in his life. He told me.”

“Told you what?” He cuts her off.

“That his parents kicked him out because he’s-“ she stops herself, realizing what she’s about to say.

“He’s what?” He asks without skipping a beat.

_Shit._

Pidge pauses, unsure of what to say. She couldn’t just tell the _truth_ right? It’s not right to just spill Keith’s privacy in front of Lance. That's _his_ story to tell. She could see that it was hard for Keith to tell _her_ he was gay, and didn’t just want to spread the word without his permission.

“He’s…-“ she starts, still unable to find out what to say. “Nothing.”

Lance scoffs unamused. “What is it?”

Pidge hides her face in her hand. “I don’t think I should be the one telling you this.”

“Why not?”

She sighs hard and long. “He told me something, and I could tell he didn’t want to tell me, and like I don’t want to spread it but like-“ Pidge screams a little bit through her teeth, clenching her hands into fists.

“Ugh, whatever, Pidge... Lets just go downstairs; I think the burgers are almost ready.” Lance groans, beginning to walk towards the stairs.

 

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The kitchen is completely filled with the pleasant aroma of ground beef patties frying. Keith can see small splatters of grease, popping from the inside of the grill pan on the stove. The sizzling sound increases as time goes by, and Keith can hear his growling stomach slowly getting louder and more audible.

After only about fifteen minutes of cooking, the burgers are done, and Hunk begins to prepare a plate for Keith. As it’s put down in front of him, his mouth drops open in awe.

The bun is golden, and warm to the touch; Hunk fried it in the pan after the patties were finished cooking to toast them slightly, and infuse them with meaty flavor. The burger patty leaks small drops of juices with each touch or manipulation. Mayo is slightly seeping out from the side of the burger; crisp lettuce and a thin, juicy tomato slice separate the patty from the top of the bun and _God, Keith is so Hungry._

The breakfast he had earlier is long gone. At the time, he was extremely full from the eggs and pancakes, but as time went on, the oh-so-familiar empty feeling in his stomach crept up again.

Pidge and Lance shuffle down the stairs and into the dining room. Keith tenses up, remembering that Lance had heard Pidge tell him that he could stay as long as he wanted, and didn’t seem to take it well. Lance wanted to talk to her upstairs which gave Keith spurs of anxiety because he thought he was _finally_ going to get kicked out. Lance was pretty nice in the beginning, but as soon as he stayed longer than he originally asked to, Lance has been acting really cold to him. It’s not like he has any reason to be nice to him though; Keith just invaded in on his life asking for a place to stay, which is a pretty big and unexpected inconvenience. But still, Lance’s behavior has been way different than that of his roommates. Pidge has been nothing but supportive and just a genuine person, and Hunk seems pretty damn cool, but _Lance?_ He’s acting different.

Lance and Pidge grab a plate of food and join them at the table.

“Looks amazing Hunk!” Pidge smiles, patting his spiky short hair. Hunk laughs at the touch, and lightly shoos her hand away from his head.

“Looks good.” Lance mutters.

As Keith takes his first bite, Pidge’s eggs and pancakes are blown out of the water. Something about these burgers is just a thousand times better, and Keith can’t put his finger on it. He doesn’t want to make Pidge feel bad, not that she would, but Hunk’s cooking is just way better! Her breakfast was _really good_ , but these burgers are _phenomenally good._

They all eat in pretty much complete silence, devouring the burgers until there’s nothing left to populate their plates. The noise of chewing fills the room, which makes Keith cringe a little bit, but he doesn’t care because he knows he’s making chewing noises as well. 

While they eat, Keith _swears_ he sees Lance stealing glances at him. It’s a weird type of look though, like he’s examining something about him. He looks lost in thought, and not completely _there._ Keith squirms a bit at this, making sure there is no mayo or anything else on his face that Lance could be staring at. He wipes the napkin all over his face, and there’s nothing there, no mayo, no grease, nothing weird for him to be staring at.

His glances aren’t really _friendly_ either. Honestly, a _glare_ would be a better way to describe the way Lance’s stare beats into him. He looks at him as though he’s conflicted about something. Keith doesn’t blame him because, of course, he’s an unwanted guest in his home, who wouldn’t be upset? But this is seriously making Keith moderately uncomfortable. He hates when people stare at him because it makes him self conscious about every move he makes.

“So.” Hunk starts, “Who’s is better?”

Keith breaks his mind away from Lance’s glares, and turns to Hunk. He knows exactly what he’s talking about, but he acts like he doesn’t. “What?” A small smile is breaking its way onto his mouth.

“The cooking!” Hunk exclaims, raising his burger in the air. “Whose is better?” He winks.

Keith pauses to formulate his thoughts before he speaks. “Well. The breakfast food was fuckin’ amazing, but _this_ is really fuckin’ amazing.”

Pidge bursts out laughing at his answer. “I won’t get mad if you like his food better! He’s been cooking for several years. You don’t have to sugar coat it, dude.”

Hunk laughs too, and soon, Keith can feel a laugh attempting to escape his lips as well. It succeeds, and he lets out a small stupid chuckle.

Something about everybody sitting around a dining room table in laughter is strangely comforting and familiar, and he really misses it.

In fact, he even notices that maybe, _just maybe_ , he can see Lance’s lips curve a little bit into a slight amused smile.

Maybe he’s just seeing things.

 

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After a few hours, Hunk and Lance head to bed, and Pidge and Keith are left in living room, chit chatting on the couch, sipping on her famous root beer floats. Sure Hunk’s cooking is a little bit better, but these root beer floats blow away everything he’s eaten today. He feels like everything he ingests while he is here is better than the last. The breakfast was amazing, the burgers were even more amazing, and these root beer floats are _even more amazing!_ Does that mean that tomorrow’s breakfast will probably be _even better?_ He could hardly wait.

Right after dinner, Keith felt a slight wave of fatigue, but that didn’t last long. Now, he’s wide awake on the soft sofa, feeling no need to head to bed and get to sleep any time soon. It’s not like he actually did anything today that would make him unbearably tired like the previous few days; all he really did was just sit around getting to know Pidge and Hunk. Well, getting to know people _is_ pretty tiring to Keith’s introverted mind, but it didn’t drain him too bad because they seem to be really genuine people.

After the two went to bed, Pidge _obviously_ took it as an opportunity to continue prying more information out of Keith about his life because she seems really intrigued by him. And not to mention, they kept getting interrupted both times they were having a talk, so now that the two people who disrupted them were sleeping, they could easily talk without anybody walking in on them.

“So. Where did we leave off?” She asks, winking.

Keith laughs slightly and looks down at the ground. “Uh. I’m not sure.”

“Well I know you mentioned your sexuality.” She winks again, still internally freaking out about what he told her before dinner.

He feels a slight redness forming in his cheeks, still in disbelief that he actually _told_ somebody that. “Yeah…” He looks down even more, trying to hide his face.

“Have you ever told anybody else before?” She asks widening her eyes.

Keith really thinks about his answer. He knows that he really hasn’t ever _told_ anybody. Sure, his parents _found out_ , but he didn’t actually ever officially tell them. Would it be weird that the first person he actually came out to was a girl he had only known for about twenty-four hours? Is that strange in any way? How did he develop enough trust in Pidge to be able to do that? He looks to the side in thought. “Hmmm. I don’t think I have to be honest.”

She gasps and lifts her hand to her mouth. “I’m the first one you’ve told?”

“Well… I mean, yeah?” He doesn’t know how else to put it. It’s so weird. How is this random person he’s just met, the first one he has ever came out to? He’s been alive for over twenty years, fearing the day he tells another person he’s gay, and it was just this easy to say it?

“Not that I’m not a trustworthy person, but how the hell did you trust _me_ enough to be the first person you told?” She chuckles.  

He thinks for a second. “Well.” He starts. Maybe it was easier for him _because_ he barely knew her. His family and friends had known him all his life as a regular _heterosexual_ straight guy. “Maybe since you are practically a stranger, it’s easier to open up to you?” He suggests, not sure if what he’s saying is making any sense.

“I guess I can understand that.” She nods. “Also, I just want to say that I am so proud of you! Like-” She smiles uncontrollably. “How does it feel?”

Keith smiles too. He smiles at the fact that Pidge is smiling. It’s really comforting to see that somebody is smiling because they found out his sexuality. His family, most definitely, did _not_ smile when they found out, and it really helps to know that there are accepting people in the world that are happy for him.

“It feels…” He pauses, thinking of the right word to say. “Relieving.” He breaths, letting all the stress wash off of him.

“As it should. Nobody should ever have to be stressed about their sexuality. They’re born that way right? I just really hate when people shame other people for just being themselves.”

He nods, raising both of his eyebrows. “I know. I hated living my life being somebody I’m not. Everything I did, I always had to ask myself if it looked _straight_ enough. I was always scared that somebody would suspect something, that they would find out somehow.” He holds back a tear. “And, I guess they _did_ find out.”

Pidge holds out her hand, and Keith squeezes it. “Keith. They were going to find out one way or another. I mean, maybe how they found out wasn’t the _best_ way, but at least you got that out of the way right?” Her eyes are welcoming, and intrigued. Keith hasn’t ever had anybody in his life that was willing to have this conversation with him. For the first time in his whole life, he feels like somebody genuinely cares about him as the person he really is.

“I guess you’re right.” The tear finds its way out of his eye, and streams down the side of his cheek. “If they didn’t find me with that one guy, I don’t even know how they would’ve found out. I don’t think I ever would have _told_ them.”

“Everything happens for a reason, Keith.” Pidge crosses her legs on the couch. Her words pierce through Keith’s brain like a freshly sharpened dagger. She’s totally right. _Everything happens for a reason_. The words repeat through his mind over and over again. If his parents would’ve never walked in on him making out with a _dude,_ he would probably still be living with his parents, still completely in the closet being somebody he’s not. Sure, he would have still had amazing home-cooked meals every night, and constant love from his parents, but he would still have that depressing weight on his chest that he’s always had. The fear that they would find out, or catch him _in the act._ Now that they finally _did_ catch him in the act, he can finally move on with his life. He can finally be the person he always was without trying to hide it, and man _does it feel good._

She continues, “If they would've never found out, you would’ve never came here, met me, and came out for the first time!” She says enthusiastically, smiling. What Pidge says is the absolute truth. If none of that would’ve happened, he wouldn’t be here. He wouldn’t have had the opportunity to taste Hunk’s amazing burgers. He wouldn’t have had the opportunity to wake up to the smell of Pidge’s perfect pancakes. He also wouldn’t have had the opportunity to enjoy that small glass of wine with Lance. Not that _that_ is really important, but he kind of enjoyed it?

“I guess it does. You’re right.” He nods, smiling slightly.

Pidge lets out her internal screams a little bit more. “Ahh! I’m still so hyped. Nobody has ever come out to me before! I feel so trusted.”

She gasps as she looks past Keith’s head. Keith quickly bolts his head around, and standing behind him about five feet away, is a very fatigued and groggy looking Hunk.

“Whoa. I didn’t mean to interrupt.” He clarifies, holding his hands out. “I just wanted some water.”

Pidge and Keith both look at each other with widened eyes. A look of guilt spreads across her face. She holds her hand to her mouth, regretting speaking so loudly.

Oh god.

_How much did he hear?_

“H-how much did you hear?” Keith turns and asks Hunk.

He bites his lip. “Quite a bit. But, sorry it’s totally my fault. I should have warned you guys I was coming.

“Since when do you walk quietly, Hunk?” Pidge asks confusingly.

Hunk laughs awkwardly. “I’m sorry!” He scratched the back of his head. “But Keith, I just wanna say, _I’m happy for you._ ”

_Okay, he definitely heard everything._

“I’m. Just, don’t tell anybody, okay?” He asks timidly.

“My lips are sealed.” He runs his finger across his mouth, walking out of the kitchen with a glass of water.

They both sit in silence for a few seconds trying to process what the hell just happened. Now _two_ people know Keith’s biggest secret? It’s overwhelming to him. The last two people who found out his biggest secret were his parents, and _they_ _kicked him out_. Now, these two people know his biggest secret and they... they _aren’t telling him to leave_? What? They’re actually letting him stay longer than he originally said. It doesn’t make sense to him. He had been living with his parents his whole life, and that house was his _home,_ but his parents kicked him out of the only place he knew as home when they found out his secret. This, the house he’s in right now, isn’t even his _home_ , but these people still insist that he stays as long as he needs to. Guess that shows the types of people in this world… Again, Keith smiles at the fact that there _are_ people in this world that accept him for who he really is.

“I guess we should head to bed.” Pidge smiles, laughing away the tension in the room.

“Yeah, I guess we should.” Keith sighs, getting up from the sofa. “And Pidge, thank you for uh- listening to me.” He smiles shyly at her.

“Of course, Keith!” She winks. “We’ll talk more tomorrow?”

“You know it.”

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For the second night in a row, Keith can not sleep. He’s not really surprised at this however, because honestly who _could_ sleep in this sort of a situation. Show up at a strangers house asking to stay the night, end up staying longer, one of them ends up hating you, and you come out of the closet to the other two? What the _hell_ is going on? More has happened in the past two days of his life than has happened in the past two months, and he’s having trouble winding down from it.

He tosses and turns for a good hour, before his stomach makes another rumbling sound. Except, unlike before, the rumbling sound isn’t _hunger_ , but rather _thirst._ Now that he thinks about it, he really hasn’t drunk much water since he’s been here, which isn’t good.

He sits up and wipes his eyes until they’re fully awake. He steps out of his room and into the dark and lifeless kitchen to get some water. When Hunk woke up to get water, he saw he was using a big bottle of filtered water located in the fridge, and that sounds amazing. Keith isn’t _too_ picky about water, but sometimes tap water can be really gross, and he’d rather not drink it straight from the faucet.

He opens the fridge and sees the bottle of crystal clear water and pours himself a glass. He decides to go sit in the comfy recliner in the living room to wind down his mind so that he’s able to sleep after this.

As soon as he sits down, he hears footsteps shuffling down the stairs. They don’t sound like Hunk’s footsteps because his are louder, or in some cases, _apparently_ completely silent.

They sound calmer, and more coordinated than Pidge’s footsteps, leaving only one person left that it could possibly be. _Great_.

He hears the person rummaging around in the kitchen, and before he could get up and leave back to his room, Lance walks through the walkway, stopping in his tracks when he sees Keith sitting in the recliner.

“What-. What are you doing?” He asks groggily, still half asleep.

He’s holding a small glass of wine. The glass is definitely smaller than the one he was using last night when Keith showed up at his door. It’s the perfect amount of wine to wind down to, making sleeping a bit easier.

“I. “ he starts, not knowing what to say. “I just needed water.”

“Oh.” He walks to the sofa, not making eye contact with Keith. “Okay.”

Lance sits down, puts his elbows on his knees, and continues sipping his drink. Silence fills as the air as they both sit, enjoying their beverages. Lance makes no sort of eye contact, and basically just acts like Keith isn’t there.

 _Ahhhh._ Keith freaks out internally. He’s just waiting for Lance to tell him to leave. He’s waiting for him to say something cold and rude to him. He sits in anticipation for something hurtful to come out of his lips.

“Did you like Hunk’s burgers?” Lance asks quietly, breathing into his glass.

Keith looks up confused. That’s not what he expected at all. The last time Lance talked to him like a normal person was when he had just arrived at the house. After he found out he was staying longer than originally planned, he’d been silent and cold to Keith. Now he’s asking him if he liked Hunk’s burgers?

“Uh. They were really good.” He stutters.

“I know right.” He mutters, quietly.

Lance suddenly looks up at Keith just like he did at the dinner table. It’s the same glare like he’s thinking hard about something. He almost looks like he wants to ask him something, but no words ever escape his mouth.

He takes the last gulp of wine, emptying off his glass. He then rises off of the couch and walks back to the kitchen.

“I’m going back to sleep.” he mutters, Keith barely able to hear him.

“Okay. G’ um. Night.” He says, again, just like last night, not knowing if he should say the word _good_ or not.

“Uh. Night.” Lance says, not turning back.

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Lance collapses in his bed with a warm fuzzy sensation radiating through his chest from the small glass of wine. He can’t sleep tonight and he doesn’t really know why. He just has a lot on his mind, and he won’t stop _thinking_ , about anything and everything. However, his mind keeps wandering back to one topic in particular.

What Pidge said earlier about Keith.

Keith’s parents kicked him out, and that’s the reason he showed up here. But she apparently knows _why_ they kicked him out. When he tried to ask him, Keith said he didn’t want to talk about it and quickly changed the topic. How did Pidge manage to get an answer out of him? Why was he so opposed to telling Lance? And most importantly, why couldn’t Pidge just tell Lance when he asked earlier before dinner? He feels like he would have to ask Keith himself if he wants any sort of answer, but he feels like he’ll probably just avoid the question again. Why don’t they want him to know? It’s all really weird and millions of questions flood over Lance’s brain. It does makes a little bit of sense though because Lance realizes he’s been kind of snappy to him ever since the morning, and he doesn’t blame him for not trusting him completely. But still, Keith is staying in his house, and he deserves to know his situation, right?

Eh, it’s not that big of a deal. It’s not the end of the world if he doesn’t know. It’s not like he cares anyway.

He keeps telling himself that, but he still can’t seem to shake the thought from his head.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im so proud of my bby Keith! 
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you so much for all of the support in this fic! You guys are so awesome. Every time a read a comment my face brightens so much <3
> 
>  
> 
> Also if anybody is interested in following me on Twitter, it’s https://twitter.com/deadpancakejake
> 
>  
> 
> Love you all!


	5. Rice, Racing, and Face Masks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance's stomach hurts
> 
> Hunk is scared
> 
> Keith likes his face

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I have finally figured out how long this fic is going to be. I know it's going to be three parts. Each part will be (around) 6 chapters long. The next chapter marks the end of Part one. I honestly didn't think I would make it this far. I usually write the first chapter of things, and then give up lol. But I'm still here, and I refuse to give up! 
> 
> Enjoy~

**15 Years Earlier**

 

“Noooo!” Veronica shouts in disappointment, as her character falls off of the course, causing her to drop a few places behind everybody else.

“Haha!” Marco screams. “How’s 7th place feel, V?” 

Lance sits back in silence, concentrating all of his attention on the race. He had been in second place for the first two laps, and now, somehow he pulled his way up to  _ first? _ If he keeps driving like this, he  _ might  _ actually win, something he’s never really achieved before; his siblings are basically Mario Kart professionals, and it would do good for his self esteem if he beat them in a race, even if it’s only once.

The finish line approaches, and he can see the warning symbol for a blue shell approaching him and he feels his heart drop.  _ Of course Marco would do something like this just when he thought he could win.  _ He clenches his teeth as he attempts to press down on the acceleration button on the controller as hard as he can. Of course it doesn’t impact his speed in any way, but it makes him feel better about himself, and eases his mind ever so slightly. He finally crosses the finish line, and as soon as he does, the blue shell finally decides to hit him. It doesn’t make a difference anymore however because he already got first place! 

“Haha! You guys suck!” He screams, throwing his controller to the ground in pride. “I won!!”

Shouts, cries, and angry cheers fill the room, as his siblings are simultaneously surprised, happy, and also upset at Lance for getting first place.

As soon as their yelling calms down, muffled shouting can be heard from outside of their room. They all look around at each other wondering what the noise is, until they all realize that the shouting is just the familiar sound that they hear almost every single night.

It’s the sound of their parents arguing about  _ God knows what _ this time. This seems to be happening more and more, and at this point it’s just become a part of their daily routine. 

Luis takes the TV remote and turns up the volume to try to drown out the noise. He knew his siblings didn’t like hearing their parents shout at each other; whenever they fought, it made them all really uncomfortable and even a little bit  _ nervous _ . Sometimes they would even hear  _ thumps _ and  _ bangs  _ from outside of the room when things got really bad. Whenever this happened, Lance’s older brother, Luis would always lock the door just In case, telling Lance, Veronica, and Marco to stay in the room until the noise calms down. 

The yelling soon quiets down, and there is a light knock at the bedroom door. 

“Kids, Dinner…” Lance’s mother mumbles from the other side. 

All of the kids shuffle out of the room with Luis going first to make sure the coast was clear. He had always been the most mature sibling; their parents rarely checked up on them, or showed them much of any substantial care. They really didn’t seem to mind whenever Lance would receive a low grade in school, or got in trouble with another student. They would just apologize to the teacher whenever they got the call home and never go on to speak to him about it, or attempt to get him back on track. When Luis saw that Lance was struggling in school, he jumped right on his back and began to help him with his homework every night. He also made sure to give him a stern talk whenever he pulled one of his classmates’ pigtails as a prank. Luis is the only reason Lance isn’t failing the third grade right now because his parents don’t seem to care. 

They sit down at the table and stare down at their plates. Beans and rice. Again. This is totally not a surprise though; they’ve had beans and rice for dinner everyday for the past month and a half. It’s really easy to make, and doesn’t cost a lot of money, so nobody really blames them for it, but still… it gets kind of depressing eating the same thing every day. 

The dinner table is pretty much silent, as usual. There’s occasional chatter between Marco and Veronica about the last Mario Kart race they just did. Marco is still in complete shock that he didn’t  _ win  _ because  _ he always wins.  _

Lance’s parents eat their rice in silence, looking down at their plates. They take occasional glances at their children, and shoot them slight, painful smiles.

They never argued in front of the kids. They always waited until they were either gone at school, or locked in their rooms. In fact, they never even  _ talked _ in front of the kids. They never  _ talked _ in general. The only time they actually have conversations is when they are disagreeing on something, or shooting hurtful insults at each other. If they weren’t doing that, they were living their lives in silence, avoiding all sorts of contact.

Despite their odd relationship, they are married, so they must still be madly in love, right? They still sleep in the same room every night, and Lance is always noticing their door locking at around 11 o’clock each night. He swears he hears thumping against the wall every night, but it doesn’t sound like it normally does when they fight. It sounds more consistent and has a pattern to it. He never understood what the noise was, but he always tried to ignore it whenever it happened. 

After they’re finished eating the tasteless beans, they all return into the bedroom and continue playing Mario Kart. 

“There’s no way you’re stealing first place again, McClain.” Marco shouts, pinching Lance’s shoulder. 

“That’s your last name too, stupid!” He shouts, giggling. 

They begin the next race, and after only a few seconds, it’s obvious that Lance’s fame is going to be short lived. He started off in first, and eventually fell all the way to ninth, and couldn’t seem to get above that. 

They race for a few more hours, and the closest to his former glory Lance is able to reach is fifth place. Luis swears he isn’t letting Lance pass him to make him feel better, but it’s obvious that he slows down substantially right before he crossed the finish line. 

In the middle of a race, Lance sees his parents shuffling into their room out of the corner of his eye, and locking the door behind them. 

As they continue racing, the same consistent, light, thumping sound populates the walls.   
  
  
  


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**Present Day**

  
  


Lance has been rummaging through his closet for twenty minutes now, trying to find the perfect outfit to wear for his date tonight. His floor is coated with a bunch of clothes that he decided wouldn’t be good enough, and he’s finally reached all the way to the back of his closet, where his  _ trashy _ clothes are. Nyma and Lance’s date tonight isn’t planned to be a fancy candle-lit dinner, or anything formal. It’s planned to just be a nice casual night out at the bar. That’s the type of dates she always seemed to like anyway.  _ She sure loved her drinks sometimes. _ Lance chuckles to himself. He finally decides on a pair of ripped, black skinny jeans, and a gray t-shirt. He tries it on and actually loves how he looks. He looks absolutely trashy, but trashy in a  _ good _ and  _ sexy _ way. God, Nyma is going to love it! 

She’s so gorgeous. How the hell was he able to reel her back in to going on another date with him? Whatever caused this to happen, he’s just happy that the incident that happened six months ago was now behind them, and they could move forward with their relationship. He knew their fight would all blow over sooner or later, and he would finally have her back. She tends to do that lot. She’ll say she  _ isn’t feeling it anymore _ or something along the lines of that, and then break it off on impulse, but it only lasts for a few months at most. She probably just gets  _ overwhelmed _ easily, and that’s perfectly okay. She probably needs her time to get her life together, and figure out who she is, and Lance respects that. He never bothers to ask her about it though because he doesn’t want to pressure her into telling him anything she isn’t comfortable with. 

Tonight, his plan is to just show her his affection and buy her drinks. They don’t even  _ have _ to talk about what happened six months ago; that would just ruin the perfectly good date, and Lance most definitely is  _ not _ gonna fuck this up. Again. 

He looks down at his phone and panics a little bit because he’s supposed to meet her at the bar in,  _ what? _ fifteen minutes! He looks in the mirror, quickly runs his hands through his hair, and bolts down the stairs. 

“Hey Lance! Wanna join us for dinner and movie night?” Pidge shouts from the sofa.

“Cant! I’m late for my date! Wish me luck!” He shouts, grabbing the car keys and running out of the door before anybody could ask any questions.   
  


“Where’s he going?” Pidge questions, staring at Hunk. 

“I think he’s going out with that  _ Nyma  _ chick again.” He rolls his eyes.

Pidge scoffs and rolls her eyes as well. “Again?” 

“Yeah I guess.”    
  


 

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The bar is loud, as usual. They were somehow lucky enough for there to be two open bar stools right next to each other when they got there. One of them had a huge rip in it, so Lance sat on that stool, so that Nyma would be treated no less than a queen. 

He buys her her absolute favorite drink, a rum and Coke. She downs it extremely quickly, and before Lance knows it, he’s buying her two,  _ three, four _ drinks. 

Throughout the night, Lance puts his arm around her and she lays her head on Lance’s shoulder. With each drink she throws back, the more her head sinks into the crook of Lance’s neck, her weight being supported more and more by his lanky frame. 

Lance feels a sensation of nostalgia warm his chest. This is always how it used to be. He really misses the days where him and Nyma would sit in bars blackout drunk, slurring romantic sweet talk into each other’s ears. It eventually led to making out in the open, passing their alcohol scented saliva through eachothers mouths, falling practically on top of each other, nearly slipping off their bar stools and onto the floor. Some nights, it even led to the both of them going into a bathroom stall and doing a lot of drunken, dirty, half assed foreplay. They never went  _ all the way _ in the stalls because the one time they  _ did  _ do it, they were caught by the bar staff, which didn’t end well.

Lance looks down at his drink and realizes that he’s only half way done with his  _ first drink.  _ What? He was planning on getting absolutely  _ shitfaced _ with her tonight, but it’s already 10 o’clock and he isn’t even slightly buzzed. Maybe it’s the weird feeling he has in his stomach. This whole day, he’s felt like he’s had a knot inside his gut, but he just disregarded it, hoping it would go away by the time of his date. Why  _ does  _ his stomach hurt though? It isn’t a regular stomach ache either; it’s an off putting sunken feeling that he just can’t explain. He’s been feeling it for the past few days, and he can’t place his finger on what’s causing it.   
  


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Keith was right. The food today is  _ even better  _ than the food yesterday. He thought that absolutely nothing could top those burgers, but apparently he was wrong because these enchiladas are blowing his mind. Keith has always hated enchiladas just a little bit. They’re so messy and always just fall apart into a soggy, greasy mess; Hunk however, somehow knew how to avoid those signature enchilada pitfalls because these taste absolutely amazing! 

This time, they decide not to eat at the dining room table, and instead set up a few TV trays, and eat on the sofa. Pidge puts in a horror movie and they sit, eating their enchiladas in the dark, with the TV being their only source of light. 

Tonight is going really well. Keith is actually having a  _ good _ night for once. He actually feels like somebody enjoys his company. He feels like he  _ matters. _ He’s honestly never felt that before. Sure, his parents used to tell him that he matters to them, but that was before they found out who he really was. He feels like Pidge and Hunk genuinely like him for the person he really is, and it feels  _ amazing.  _

They decide on watching a movie called  _ Hush _ because Pidge says ghost movies are way too overrated, and serial killer movies are way more realistic. Something about being chased around by another human who’s trying to murder her completely freaks her out. It makes sense though because honestly ghosts don’t really do anything. They just follow people around and make them uncomfortable.  _ Oooo I’m going to open this cabinet door!  _ They really don’t pose any sort of physical threat. And besides, there’s not really any cases anywhere of anybody actually  _ dying _ from a ghost, so somebody dying in a movie from a ghost isn’t really realistic. 

In  _ Hush,  _ there’s a deaf girl, and a one crazy looking man is trying to kill her.  She can’t hear anything, so it makes her fight for survival extremely difficult because she doesn’t have the sense of hearing to help her. To Keith’s surprise, the movie is actually genuinely scary, and well made. He never really gets scared by horror movies because he’s a ‘ _ it’s just a movie’  _ kind of guy. It’s only fiction, and he doesn’t have to worry about the scenario ever happening to him in real life. But with this movie, he’s really put into the deaf girl’s shoes, and it sends chills up his spine whenever she’s in a life threatening situation.

The movie eventually ends, and Hunk is practically buried into the couch with fear circulating his blood stream. He’s a large hefty guy, but Keith notices that he's a bit of a wimp deep down sometimes.

“Oh my gosh-  Guys!” Pidge shouts, as she is all of a sudden enlightened with some sort of idea. Keith and Hunk just stare at her, waiting for her to continue with what she is going to say.

“Can we do facemasks?” She smirks a stupid smile. Hunk breaks out laughing, and Keith soon joins in. 

Keith is about to decline because of how cliche that is, but then it hits him how  _ good _ of an idea this actually is. His skin needs some.. _ work, _ and a facemask will probably be exactly what he needs. 

“Lance has some upstairs; i’ll go get them!” She exclaims, bolting off of the couch and up the stairs. 

Lance owns face masks? No wonder his face always looks so clear, spotless, and  _ glowing _ . Keith has never done a facemask, which is probably why his face is so far  _ gone. _ He gets pimples so easily, and can’t seem to get rid of his blackheads no matter how hard he tries. His face _ glows _ sometimes, but it’s always because of sweat and excess oil on his skin, which isn’t as attractive as a natural clean glow. He washes his face sometimes at least. He splashes water on it before he goes to bed! That counts right? 

Pidge returns with three different colored face mask packets. She spreads them across the coffee table so that Hunk and Keith can easily examine them. The first one he sees is a red one that claims it treats blackheads and oily skin.  Keith doesn’t even have to look at the other two to know that it’s the one he’s going to go with. Hunk grabs an exfoliating one, and Pidge goes with a charcoal mask. They all shuffle off the couch and head up the stairs to apply them in the mirror.

  
  


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Lance and Nyma, unsurprisingly, end up in a bathroom stall. Lance still isn’t even buzzed yet; he was barely able to choke down his first, and probably only, drink of the night while Nyma was able to down about seven. At this point, she is burying her face into his neck, biting it with sexual aggression. God, this feels way different when he’s sober. It feels so forced, like she’s trying to bite his neck open and suck his blood or some shit. It’s definitely not as satisfying when he’s totally aware of his senses. 

As their foreplay continues, he can't help but be constantly brought back to the  _ thought _ that’s been infecting his brain for the past two days. It’s the thought of this  _ dude _ staying in his house. He finally comes to the conclusion what this stomach pain is from. Whenever he thinks about Keith in his house, he gets a penetrating feeling of anger deep within his gut. Ugh, this guy is the biggest freeloader he’s ever seen! He just budged his way into his life and won’t seem to go away. The worst part is that Pidge and Hunk are being completely fooled and pulled into this dude’s trap. They’re completely oblivious to what this  _ Keith _ guy is doing. They listen to everything, and believe everything he tells them. He’s such a  _ manipulative asshole! _

However, the more Lance thinks about it, the more he can’t place his finger on  _ what _ Keith is even doing that makes him so damn angry. He hasn’t killed them yet, so at least he probably isn’t a murderer. He hasn’t stolen all of their money yet, so at least he’s not a thief. He hasn’t burnt their house down yet, so at least he's not an arsonist. Come to think of it, he hasn’t really done anything wrong except stay at their house longer than he said he was going to. Lance thinks long and hard about it. Why does he actually hate Keith so much? What caused Lance to view him as the  _ worst _ person in the world? Why does this overwhelming sensation of anger brew in his stomach whenever the thought of him pops into his head? He’s probably right though. Keith  _ has to  _ have a mischievous plan, and Hunk and Pidge are just oblivious to it. They won’t listen to what Lance says anymore, though.  _ Whatever. _ He doesn’t need them to listen to him. He doesn’t even need  _ them _ anymore, anyway. They can fall as deep into Keith’s fucking trap as they want! He has Nyma now, and that’s all that matters. 

He pulls her up, and begins to vigorously kiss her neck, leaving dark, deep hickeys on her skin.  _ Nyma is way better than his friends anyway. _

  
  
  


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After about fifteen minutes of application, it’s time for Keith to rinse off the mask.  _ Finally _ . As soon as he applied it, his face was filled with an unsatisfying tingly sensation. He knew that it was just the mask going to work on his beat down face, but he still didn’t like how it felt. 

As he begins to rinse the mask off, he already sees the breathtaking results, as his face actually looks relatively  _ clean _ for once. A light gasp escapes his lips when his eyes meet his face in the mirror. For the first time in his life, he actually doesn’t absolutely hate how his skin looks. There’s still a few blackheads littered across his nose, but they aren’t as defined as they were before he applied the mask. Now his face is smooth and shiny. It’s not the gross, oily, sweaty, shine anymore; it’s the beautiful, clean, shimmer that he’s always wanted to see on himself.

“Whoa! Keith you look amazing!” Pidge screams, gazing into Keith’s nearly spotless skin. She then grabs the end of her mask and begins peeling it off. Keith turns away and cringes at the sight of it because it looks extremely painful. 

“Aaaaaaaowwww” She breathes in pain, as she continues to rip the mask off. 

When she’s done, Keith looks back at her, and notices her skin doesn’t really look much different than it did before. It’s just a little bit red with irritation, if anything. He makes a mental note that if he ever buys his own facemasks, that he’s  _ not _ going to buy a charcoal peel off one.

After Hunk washes his mask off, he yawns intensely, rubbing his eyes. “I think I’m going to head to bed. That movie tired me out man.” 

Pidge laughs. “Yeah me too. I need sleep.” She rubs her eyes, letting out a yawn as well, probably caused from Hunk’s super contagious one. 

They all part ways to their rooms, but Keith ends up staying awake, laying on the sofa in the living room because he knows he isn’t going to be able to fall asleep until later. While he sits, he can’t help but let his face fall into a very content smile. 

He just ate enchiladas, watched a horror movie, and did face masks with two people he met just over two days ago. He always had a lot of trouble making new friends, but ever since he’s met these two, he’s bonded with them quicker than he’s ever bonded with anybody else in his entire life. They are so friendly to him, and seem to already care a lot about him, despite hardly knowing him. It’s so weird to have somebody care about him for the person he actually _is_. They care about giving him a place to stay, and a life to live. They care about giving him amazing home-cooked meals every day. They even care about the quality of his _skin_ apparently.  They just seem to want him to be happy. He’s so grateful, and just _super content_ all of a sudden. Two days ago, he was wandering the streets, depressed, probably at the lowest point he has ever been in his life. Now just two days later, he’s probably almost the happiest he’s ever been in his entire life. 

The more he thinks about it, the more nervous he gets. He feels like something about it is  _ too good _ to be true. He feels  _ too _ happy. Things like this don’t just  _ happen. _ There has got to be some sort of catch here, right?

His thoughts are interrupted by the door lock being jiggled. It opens, and in walks  _ Lance _ with frazzled hair, and countless dark spots on his neck.

_ Oh, right. _

“Hey…” Keith says, but it’s just quiet enough for Lance not to hear him. Or did he hear it, and just not answer? He doesn’t really know.

Lance walks directly into the kitchen and up the stairs before Keith can fully process his presence. 

Part of his happiness from before soon turns into a sensation of fear. He seemed to have forgotten that there’s a  _ third party _ here that most definitely does  _ not _ care about him, and  _ does not  _ want him to stay here as long as he needs to. If Lance just wouldn’t have been here, Keith would be completely happy with his life right now, and his new friends. But Hunk and Pidge just so happen to have a roommate that interferes with every emotion circulating through Keith’s body. Well, to be fair, if Lance hadn't have been there, he would’ve never met Pidge and Hunk, and he would have completely missed out on this amazing opportunity.

He thinks back at what Pidge told him.  _ Everything happens for a reason. _ This statement is starting to conflict with him. If that’s actually the case, then why was  _ Lance _ the one that was home when he showed up two days ago? Why did  _ Lance _ have to be living in this house with Pidge and Hunk? What’s the reason for that? No matter how hard he thinks, he can’t put his mind on it. What is the reason for  _ Lance _ to be a part of all of this?

He hears sudden loud, angry, stomping coming down the stairs. He sinks deep into the couch cushion in fear and anticipation, not knowing who’s causing the noise.

Lance walks into the living room with a vein slightly popping in his forehead, and a tinted red face. His eyes are fueled with anger, and his teeth are violently clenched together. 

“Keith!” He screams through his teeth. 

Keith winces at the sound of his name coming out of Lance’s mouth. He sounds so  _ angry. Oh god. What’s going on? Did he fuck up? What did he do? _

“You touched my face masks didn’t you?!” He screams again, slowly stomping closer to Keith. 

“I uh. I-” He spits out, not really knowing what to say or how to answer. He did technically touch them, so he couldn’t say no. 

Lance quickly steps forward, yanking Keith by the arm, off of the couch and onto his feet. “You know what- Just-”

“ _ Get Out!” _

He freezes at the sound of the words, piercing out of Lance’s lips. They stab his ears like two knives digging into his brain. 

“ _ For the love of God, just Go!”  _

He feels his face going hot and red with a million different emotions. His heart rate skyrockets as he hears the words being said. His breathing quickly increases, and before he can even think, he’s bolting to the door, yanking it open aggressively, running outside. He leaves everything behind, and quickly disappears into the dark lifeless night.

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It hurt my soul to write the last paragraph of this chapter, but it had to be done :,(
> 
> The next chapter will be out VERY soon because I wrote half of it before I even started writing this chapter, so It's nearly done already. 
> 
> As always, leave kudos and comments as you please! (I love reading your comments :,D <3)


	6. Stars, Candles, and Slammed Brakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is broken
> 
> Pidge is angry
> 
> Lance is guilty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next chapter!
> 
> I used a lot of italicized text in this chapter so hopefully I didn't overdo it haha. 
> 
> This one is really emotional, and it was hard to write :,( it's definitely the angstiest chapter so far so buckle your seat belts!
> 
> There is also things related to suicide in this chapter, so if that is a sensitive topic for you, I put a "✿✿✿" where the sensitive material starts, and where it ends, so you can easily skip over it! PLEASE SKIP IT if you need to! <3
> 
> I'll put a brief summary of what happened in between the ✿✿✿ in the notes below.
> 
> Enjoy!~

 

 

 

The overwhelming silence of the night rings in Keith’s eardrums. He feels the events that just played out resonate through his brain over and over again, echoing intensely. _Get out! For the love of God, just go!_

The words are painfully familiar to him, the events of an hour ago still stinging him deep to his core. It was the same hurtful, raspy, tone, the same widened, anger filled eyes, the same red flush in the cheeks. The same everything.  They were the same words his mother used when they _found out_ about him. Lance basically gave a near exact reenactment of what happened last year, leaving Keith in the same confused, hurt, and hopeless state he had been in one year prior.

The moonlight pierces through the trees, slightly blocked by the occasional bunch of leaves swaying over it in the wind. The road in front of him is dimly lit with a milky white beam of light, and the breeze is cool, but not freezing, as it normally is on a regular summer night. This is _definitely_ not a regular night to Keith. It’s one of the worst nights of his life. He’s not sure if it _is_ the number one worst, but it’s definitely up there.

Despite how horribly his night is going, he can’t help but notice that as soon as he steps out into the cold darkness of the night, everything is completely _regular._ The crickets are chirping, the leaves are swaying in the wind, the moonlight is peeking through the trees in an organized twinkling pattern; the night is just absolutely normal. The three times he had been wandering the streets at night, looking for a place the stay, were all the _same_ . Somehow he keeps ending up in this place. It’s not really a place necessarily, but rather a _time_ . The _night_ ; the _dark._ Where he’s wandering around in pitch blackness, aimlessly searching for a place to stay. Not just physically, but also mentally. While he’s wandering around trying to find a place to sleep, he’s also basically walking through his consciousness, trying to find something to light up the path in front of him; a sense of direction. When he found his uncle was willing to take him in, a candle was lit within his soul, and it guided him slightly on where to go with his life. But that candle didn’t last forever, and it eventually burnt out, leaving him wandering aimlessly in the dark once again. Another candle popped up when Lance took him in for the night, except he knew that this time it would burn out quicker than the last. And it did. It lasted a little bit longer than he thought, but that doesn’t matter anymore because now it’s burnt out completely, and he’s back to wandering around, lost in the dark tranquility of the night. He slowly realizes that he can’t keep relying on _candles._ He needs something better. Something that lives longer. He needs a _star._ Stars basically burn forever, and if one can illuminate his path, he’ll be led on the right track, never having to be lost in the dark ever again. He needs to find a _light_ that will stick with him forever, and not burn out, throw him under the bus, or move away.

 _God,_ he knew there was going to be a catch to all of this. He knew he couldn’t just stroll into somebody’s life and have them care about him forever. He _knew_ that all of this was too good to be true. Whatever he had for the past few days was just ripped from underneath his feet. Now he’s back down on the cold ground, and now all he can do is continue on with his life, looking for what’s next.

He doesn’t even know where to look anymore. He’s tried door knocking, but that apparently doesn’t work very well around here. The only place it _did_ work, he got kicked out of and there’s absolutely _no_ way he’s going to be able to go back there. Lance obviously had hate and anger brewing up inside of him the longer Keith stayed, and he finally snapped. Keith can’t even be mad at him; all he can do is feel a stomach-twisting sensation of guilt. The words continue to ring in his ear, repeating again and again like a never ending loop. The sight of Lance angrily pointing to the door just won’t leave his head. The whole memory is stuck in his brain and he can’t seem to think about anything else.

Keith finally starts to feel his eyes become heavy with saturation. He had been so much in shock about what just happened to the point where he wasn’t even able to cry. Now that his heart beat has calmed down ever so slightly, the tears are finding their way to his eyes. They bunch up in his lower lid, then flow down his cheeks in an unbroken stream. He lets out occasional, brief, and heavy breaths, sobbing intensely into his hands.

He hasn’t had a good cry for an entire year, when he was kicked out of _his own_ house. He doesn’t cry like this often. All he ever does is let out occasional tears whenever he’s talking about something emotional, like he did with Pidge when he came out to her. But this is one of the rare occurrences where Keith is full out sobbing. It almost feels pleasurable to release this bottle of pent-up tension; to open it up, and pour out all of it in one go.

He stops in his tracks and sits on a large rock on the side of the road to recollect himself. He had been walking for a good half hour down the road, going absolutely nowhere in particular. He honestly has no idea where he’s going to go next. Would he just keep knocking on doors, hoping somebody else is willing to take him in for the night? But yet again, that’s just lighting another cheap, temporary _candle_ , and that isn’t necessarily the best option to go with. It only pushes off the reality of the situation to the next day. He can’t just keep knocking on doors, staying in a different house every night. He would eventually run out of doors to knock on, and end up living on a park bench, or something like that. However, the only other option was to go back to his family, and there is no way in _hell_ he is going to do that. They obviously don’t want him. He isn’t the son that they wanted. They wanted a high achieving son who plays sports and brings home his dashingly beautiful girlfriend for dinner every weekend.

But he isn’t interested in sports, he wasn’t the top of his class, and he most definitely won’t bring home a dashingly beautiful _girlfriend_ home. He’s exactly what his parents _didn’t want._ He somehow managed to become the person they never wanted him to be. How could he do such a thing? He feels like the biggest fuck up any parents could have ever raised, and it’s all his fault. It’s his fault that he didn’t want to play sports. It’s his fault he didn’t try hard enough in class. It’s his fault he’s _gay_ . _God, it’s all his fault._

He wonders how they would react if he _did_ go back. If he just all of a sudden showed up at the door. Would they be happy to see him? Would they still be furious with him? Would they just shut the door in his face, leaving him alone on the front steps? Keith wishes he knew the answer, but his parents were always super unpredictable. Eh, they’ve always been kind of stubborn all their life, so they probably still _don’t_ want him to come home, and never will.

That leaves… _nothing._ He has no option anymore. Nowhere to go, nowhere to turn. All he can do is just continue wandering down this dimly lit road, waiting for an idea to pop into his head…   


_…or somebody to run him over._

  


➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶

  


“What the hell, dude? What happened?” Pidge shouts, standing on her toes in front of Lance, as an attempt to appear taller.

“I’ve had enough, okay?” He snaps back. “All he’s doing is mooching off of us!” Lance points his finger at Pidge.

“And what makes you think that?” She crosses her arms.

“He just- he’s taking my life away.” Is all Lance can find himself saying because he really can’t think of a good reason on the spot like this.

“What the hell does that mean?”

Lance stands in silence for a few moments not really knowing what to say. He’s definitely just been hunting for reasons to be angry with Keith, and he can’t place his finger on _why_ . What did this dude do to make him so _damn_ mad? He literally just kicked him out of his house because he used his face masks.  _What?_   Hell, he probably didn’t even touch them; it was probably Hunk or something. So why does he have such an overwhelming hatred towards Keith? Deep down, he thinks he knows the answer, but there’s no way in hell he’s going to say it out loud.

“He stole my face masks!” Lance’s voice is shaky.

“Oh come on, Lance. That wasn’t even him! I touched them.” Pidge shouts, angrily rolling her eyes. “You did _not_ kick him out because you thought he touched your face masks.”

“Well- I- He” Lance stutters, attempting to find any words.

“Lance. Just tell me _why.”_

He takes a deep breath. “I just, it’s really weird. He just showed up out of nowhere into our lives, and.. You- you guys are my best friends, but all of a sudden all you’re doing is hanging out with this rando, _Keith._ And he’s telling you all of his secrets and shit, and I’m just” He pauses. “I’m left out of all of it. Sure he isn’t stealing anything _physically_ , but he’s stealing you guys away, and I.. I _panicked.”_ He flinches at the words that come out of his mouth because of how truthful they are. He feels really _odd_ all of a sudden and he can feel his face beginning to flush a slight shade of pink. This is the most open he’s probably been in his entire life about his emotions. He never really liked to talk about them because it could make him seem _weak_ or _powerless._ That’s the exact reason why he ran away from Nyma after the breakup instead of working it out with her. He’s a coward. He’s scared of the truth. As he speaks to Pidge, all of this is slowly becoming a reality to him. He thinks back to when Pidge offered Keith the blankets; when she invited him to stay for breakfast. It’s not even like they _bothered_ to wake Lance up to eat with them. Then, when he comes home from work, he’s staying for multiple more nights? It was his choice to _pick what was for dinner?_ When was the last time _Lance_ got to pick what was for dinner? All this guy did was show up at their house Friday night, and now he’s all his friends care about.

Pidge’s angry expression falls, and concern fills her face. “You really think that?”

Lance nods, and looks down to the floor. “Maybe.”

“Lance, I’m sorry. We didn’t mean to kick you to the curb. Keith is just going through a lot.”

“That’s the thing. I don’t know anything about the guy. You were going to tell me, but then you just stopped yourself and said it wasn’t any of my business. I wish I could help him out, but you guys are just keeping me out of all of this!” He angrily states, trying to hold back the tear in his eye.

“Lance, just calm down, okay? It was really hard for him to tell me and I didn’t know if he would be comfortable with _you_ knowing or not! To be fair, you had been pretty damn rude to him ever since yesterday morning, so I wouldn’t blame him for not wanting you to know every aspect of his life.”

“I was _jealous_ , Pidge.” He fires back, “You can’t fault me for that!”

“Yes, I absolutely can! You kicked him out for god sakes!” She shouts, throwing up her arms in frustration.

“Maybe it’s for the best!” Lance shouts, shrugging his shoulders with angry emphasis. “Everything can finally go back to normal now. He can go back to where he belongs and we can go back to living our own lives.”

“Lance, you and I both know he can’t go back home!”

“Why not? Is this another one of his secrets that he intentionally kept from me?” Lance aggressively rolls his eyes and begins pacing the room.

“Ah! Fine!” Pidge groans and throws her hands up into the air. “You know why his parents kicked him out? Huh? You really wanna know?”

Lance looks up at Pidge with a stern look on his face. “Why?”

“Because he’s _gay._ He has nowhere to go now. He’s completely lost. And you just kicked him out of here. You pushed him out there, left him wandering the streets, not knowing what the next day is gonna bring!” Lance’s eyes open wide in horror as his face goes pale. Before he can even take a second to think, he quickly walks to the counter, snatches the car keys, and exits out the front door.  


 

➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶

 

Keith looks up at all of the stars shining above him in the night sky. He can’t help but realize how overwhelmingly large the universe really is. If it’s so big, how the hell did he manage to end up on planet Earth? How did he manage to be born into the family he was born into? How did he manage to find Lance, Pidge, and Hunk’s house? Why couldn’t he have been born into a loving family that accepts him for who he is? _Why did he have to be gay?_

Millions of questions flood his brain as he looks up at the twinkling white dots populating the dark void of space. One thing he _did_ learn in school is that all of the stars are really far apart. The nearest star to the sun is over four light years away. He doesn’t even know how big a light year is, but he remembers its _pretty fucking huge._ If he wants to find a star to illuminate his life, he could be searching for _years._ He’ll probably be dead before he finds one. Is it really worth it? The nearest candle store is probably only ten or so miles away. He could easily just get a bunch of candles to light up his life. Even though they would just burn out after a few days, he could keep finding more, right? As much as he wants a _star_ to light up his life, it’ll never happen, and he _knows_ it.

He continues down the endless, dark, paved road going deeper and deeper into the middle of nowhere. He doesn’t even know why he’s walking anymore. There’s no point. There’s no more houses that he could attempt to knock on. Plus, it’s a Sunday night, and he wouldn’t feel right knocking on somebody’s house this late.

He hasn’t seen _one_ car drive by since he left the house. All he’s seen is an occasional deer run through the woods and they would be no help to him. He hasn’t seen a single human being since he was face to face with Lance. He could just go back. He could just go back and beg to stay again. It would be the safest thing to do. Pidge would probably answer the door, and she be happy to let him stay longer, right? _No._ He couldn’t. He would feel like such a disappointment, and an inconvenience. When he met Pidge and Hunk, he was happy because they were the only people he knew that didn’t view him as an inconvenience. As soon as his parents found him out, that’s all they viewed him as. As soon as his uncle found out he needed a place to stay, he _knew_ deep down, that he viewed him as that too, even if he didn’t say it out loud. And then _Lance,_ he _definitely_ thought he was a huge inconvenience.

Now he’s just here, all alone, walking along the road. He isn’t bothering anybody. Nobody is irritated by his presence out here. He’s all alone. It’s almost comforting to him. He can’t disappoint anybody if he’s isolated like this. Maybe he should just run into the woods and get lost, and be a missing person for the rest of his life. 

✿✿✿

The sound of a distant engine fills the air, and Keith turns his head around. He runs behind a bush on the side of the road, ducking out of sight. The more he thinks, the more he realizes that he actually _doesn’_ t want anybody to find him. He doesn’t want anybody to worry about him. He doesn’t want to be an _inconvenience._

The sound of the engine gets closer.

He couldn’t just live in the woods, however. He would probably starve to death, and he knows that starving is the most lengthy and painful way to die. He would also get countless irritating mosquito bites, which is the _worst._ If he’s gonna _go_ , he wants it to be quick and easy. Almost instantaneous. He wants to be gone _right now_ , not in three weeks. A gun to the back of the head would obviously be the most efficient, but he doesn’t have that right now.

He doesn’t want to remember his family. He doesn’t want to remember anything. He doesn’t want to be who he is because nobody _likes him._ All he does is irritate people, and disappoint them. The only people who have ever liked him for who he is were Pidge and Hunk, but now, they are out of the picture, and he knows he’s never going to see them again, so what’s the point?

He remembers how regular the night was when he ran from Lance’s place. Crickets chirped, the breeze blew through his hair, and the stars twinkled with no concern for his emotions. His feelings don’t matter to the world, _he_ doesn’t matter to the world. Even when he’s gone, the songs of crickets will still fill the air, the breeze will still make every tree branch dance, and the stars will still shine down like spotlights on the world below. He doesn’t matter, if there’s one thing he will never be an inconvenience for, it’s the Earth. _Maybe it’s time to join it._

This could be really _easy._ He would feel no emotions, and would never have the opportunity to disappoint another human being ever again. He would just be _silent_ , and _gone._ _God,_ he really just wants to be gone. He’s too far away from any stars, and candles won’t keep him alive forever, so he might as well just _give up._ He’s trapped in this dark life and it’s so easy to break out of it. He could feel _free_ for once in his life. The weight on his chest, the worry in his brain, and the worthless feelings would just vanish. _He_ would just vanish, and that’s all he wants.   

Headlights illuminate the road in front of him. The car has to be going around eighty miles per hour.

 _Perfect._ That’ll be fast enough to do the trick.

 

➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶➴➶

 

Lance is _flooring it_ . How could he have walked this far already? It hasn’t even been an hour. He hopes he went the right way. What if he walked the _other_ direction?

For nearly the first time in his life, Lance feels absolutely _guilty._ What had he just done? Keith was just looking for validation and safety, and Lance just stripped him of that. He kicked him the side of the curb, literally, and now he’s probably feeling so broken.

Lance was too distracted by Pidge and Hunk’s behavior to him, that he didn’t even take into account that something could be seriously wrong with his life. He thought Keith was just trying to mooch off of other people because he was mad at his parents for not letting him go to a party or something stupid like that. But they actually _kicked him out_. For a reason that he couldn’t help.

As much as he doesn’t want to have another roommate, he knows deep down that Keith _needs_ a place to stay. He doesn’t just _want_ to be away from his parents, he actually genuinely _needs_ to.

He lets out a loud emotional gasp as his headlight shine directly onto something suddenly jumping in front of his car. He slams on the brakes, and loud, ear-piercing tire screeches ring through his ears. The back of his car lifts up slightly as his front tires have already completely stopped. His first thought is that a deer ran in front of his car, but he doesn’t see it run away after he stops, and he knows for sure that he didn’t hit it. He just saw a silhouette run out in front of his car and disappear under his windshield.

He quickly opens his door, and runs out to the front of his car where he sees a body laying in the road directly in front of his bumper. He knows he didn’t hit the person because he would’ve definitely heard it and felt it. The body looks _familiar._ The leather jacket, and skinny jeans, the _mullet_.

“Keith.” He breathes. “What the _fuck_ are you doing?” Lance’s breaths are heavy, with adrenaline still pulsing through his veins. He feels his heart pounding in his chest, still shaken from slamming on the brakes and nearly hitting Keith.

Keith looks up with tears in his eyes. His eyes widen when he realizes that he’s staring at Lance. He looks around in confusion, trying to decide if he’s still alive or not.

“Keith!” Lance shouts again.

“What?” He says weakly with a cough, letting his head fall back onto the pavement.

“Why would you just run in front of my car? Dude!” Lance pauses for a minute. The reality of the situation finally hits him as he gazes down at Keith’s pale, scraped, and tear-streaked face beneath him. “Lets go.” He walks over to Keith and grabs his hand.

“What?” Keith says, almost inaudibly.

“Just get in the car.” He demands.

Keith finally decides to give in, and takes Lance’s hand to stand up on his feet.

“Can you walk?” Lance asks, holding Keith upright with his arms. Keith nods in response, but Lance continues to support him until they reach the car.

✿✿✿

Once they both get in the car, Lance stutters, “What the hell, dude?”

A few moments of silence go by as Lance shifts the car in drive. Keith finally speaks, after spending a minute in deep thought. “I’m sorry.”

Lance lets out a deep sigh. “I could have hit-” He starts, but then stops himself. “You could have died.” He says instead. He knows he would’ve let out something stupid like ‘ _you could’ve damaged my car’_ so he had to stop himself. He needs to stop trying to act tough and emotionless anyway. That’s all he’s been doing with his life, and he just needs to accept that he isn’t an emotionless rock.

“I know.” Keith replies.

“Pidge told me that she was the one that touched my face masks.”

Keith sighs emotionlessly. “Yeah.”

While they drive, Lance steals a few glances at Keith, and notices that his face is just completely blank. He isn’t crying anymore, and he’s barely moving his mouth when he speaks.

“I made a mistake.”

Keith doesn’t turn his head. “By letting me in your house?”

Lance squints. “What? No. No. By kicking you out.” He replies. “And I’m sorry.”

Keith breathes heavily, still shaken up quite a bit from jumping in front of Lance’s car. “It’s- it’s okay.”

“You really could have died.” He mutters. The reality of all of this slowly sinks into Lance. He’s slowly realizing how _hurt_ Keith really is.

“Yeah. But I guess… I guess I didn’t.”

Lance doesn’t know if he should feel really guilty or really happy. He _did_ save Keith’s life in a way by going out to find him, but on the same note, he wouldn’t have had to save his life if he wouldn’t have kicked him out in the first place. _Come on Lance, what the hell is wrong with you?_ If he would’ve just addressed the situation with Pidge without throwing a fit every time, none of this would have happened. But that’s what Lance has always been notorious for; bottling up his emotions, and acting like nothing is wrong. He had just been convinced that he absolutely hated Keith, and never wanted to figure out why that was. It wasn’t until Pidge forced it out of him that he actually knew the real reason why he didn’t like Keith. He actually didn’t even hate the guy, he was just jealous. Jealous that _he_ was the one getting his roommates’ attention. Jealous that _he_ was the one that they wanted to cook for. Jealous that _he_ was the one that Pidge wanted to do face masks with. She never wanted to do them with Lance, so why did she have an interest in them all of a sudden?

“Well,” Lance starts. “As much as I was uncomfortable about bringing in another roommate, I guess I can handle it.”

Keith lightly scoffs. “You don’t have to take me back to your place. Seriously, you can just drop me off if you want.”

“No. I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

Lance swallows. “Pidge told me your uh… situation.” He steps on the brake as he sees a deer crossing the road up ahead. “And, I- you need a place to stay. So you’re staying with us.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to cause any trouble. You know this.”

“Yes of course I’m sure!” He says, with hints of emotion coming out of the back of his throat. “Pidge didn’t send me to come get you, I went _myself.”_

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh. Thank you.” He says, finally turning his head to Lance.

“Yeah, so, you’re gonna be our roommate now.”

Lance still can’t fully process what he is feeling. He doesn’t feel any anger towards Keith anymore. Come to think of it, he really only thought he didn’t like him whenever he was around Pidge or Hunk. Now that Lance is alone with him, he actually seems alright, and he actually doesn’t want to bash his skull in. He’s finally realizing that he’s more upset with his roommates than he is with Keith. He’s still super unsure and nervous about what’s going to happen next, but he needs to calm down, and go through with it.

_“Really?”_

“Yes. There’s no way we’re going to let you wander the streets again, man.” Lance shakes his head and a soft smile creeps onto his face.

Lance knew deep down that ever since Keith showed up at his door that he would _not_ be leaving anytime soon. He didn’t want to accept it. He knew Pidge’s character enough to know that she is a really welcoming and nurturing person, and she wouldn’t let Keith leave if he didn’t have a plan on where to go. He knew that Hunk would cook him the best meals he has ever had in his entire life. He knew that the day would come where another person would come into their lives, and he wasn’t ready for it. The past few months had been just him, Pidge, and Hunk. They were the closest group of friends that anybody could ever imagine. Lance _finally_ was receiving the attention he has always craved as a kid, and he didn’t want to see it go. He didn’t want to be the fourth wheel once again.

Maybe it didn’t have to _go._ Maybe he didn’t have to be the fourth wheel again. He always thought that when Pidge and Hunk found another friend, it would be over for him, but the more he thinks about it, the more he realizes how _stupid_ that mindset is. If they can easily befriend new people, why can’t _he?_

That’s a stupid question because he totally can.

 

“Hey, so uh, what’s your favorite color?” He stutters out.

Keith shoots him a confused look. “What?”

“If I’m going to be your roommate, I might as well get to know you a little bit.” Lance chuckles.

“Oh.” Keith sighs, turning his head away from Lance. “ _Red._ ”

Lance nods and smiles.

“Mine is blue.”

“Cool.”

 

_Maybe this won’t be too hard._

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SUMMARY IN BETWEEN THE ✿✿✿'s : A car drives by and Keith jumps out in front of the car, but the car stops before it hits him and nobody is hurt. The person driving the car is Lance.
> 
> And that's the end of Part 1!!
> 
> This is so fun to write so far! I felt bad about how I characterized Lance during the past few chapters, but it had to be done! He definitely got a little better, and hopefully his actions make sense now! He's just a jealous and hurt boi.
> 
>  
> 
> Love you all <3 leave comments and kudos as you wish :)


	7. Coffee, Tea, and Applications

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge is worried
> 
> Lance is friendly
> 
> Keith smiles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a MUCH NEEDED break from the angst from the previous chapters. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter because it wasn't too emotional this time. Don't get used to it though because there's lots more to come muahaha.
> 
> Enjoy :)

♡♢♡♢  **_Part Two_ ** ♡♢♡♢

  
  


“Keith!” Pidge yells, bolting towards Keith and jumping into his arms, nearly knocking him off his feet. Her petite size and light weight is pretty easy for his slightly toned arms to handle, however. 

He’s so tired and dazed that he can barely understand what’s going on. “Hey.” He says, exhaling out all of the air in his lungs, putting Pidge back down on her feet. 

She shoots him a concerned, wide eyed glance, noticing his dull tone of voice. “So… are you doing okay?”  

Keith stares at her trying to figure out how to answer the question. He just jumped out in front of a moving vehicle, of course he isn’t doing  _ okay.  _ But she doesn’t know that yet.

“I-I guess.”

Lance interjects from the doorway. “He needs some rest.” He puts the car keys on the kitchen counter and walks in to join the conversation. Him and Keith make knowing eye contact and Keith shakes his head, hoping Lance will get the hint that he doesn’t want Pidge to know what happened. 

“Alright. Go get some sleep, Keith. We’ll talk in the morning.” Pidge pats his head.

Keith groggily walks to the room and shuts the door behind him. He practically trips and falls over his own feet until his face is in contact with the soft bed sheets. 

His mind still can't fully process the events that just occured in the past hour, and honestly, he still shocked that he’s  _ alive.  _ Being in this room was the last thing he would’ve expected to happen, and he’s still not sure if he’s dreaming or not. 

He had literally just made the biggest decision of his life and he can’t think of why he did it. Over the course of two minutes, Keith fully came to the conclusion that he wanted to die, and actually  _ went through with it _ . He jumped in front of the speeding vehicle, fully planning on losing his life right then and there. He was lucky enough for the car to have slowed down and stopped  _ just _ in time. 

And now he’s back here, still shaken up, filled with confusion about what his mind just tried to pull on him. He had never truly felt like giving up like this; something about this night just really took a toll on his emotions. 

Fatigue finally takes over his whole body, and his eyes begin to feel heavier and heavier with each minute that passes. He sinks his head deeper into the pillow, and closes his eyes, his mind slowly but surely trailing off into a deep, much needed slumber.    
  
  


♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢

 

Lance doesn’t even think he got a full hour of sleep last night. Every position he tried to fall asleep in turned uncomfortable after about ten minutes, and his mind kept running around to thousands of different places, unable to settle down enough for him to fall asleep.

He even tried sipping a glass of wine, but it surprisingly didn’t work. That  _ always _ helps him sleep, but apparently this time was different. He just felt slightly sick to his stomach upon drinking it, which he thought was unusual, but the more he thought about it, the more it started making sense. He was still pretty shaken up, and had felt a stomach-churning ball of guilt deep within his stomach. He had been really thinking all night about what had just happened. If he wouldn’t have slowed down as fast as he did, he could’ve  _ killed  _ Keith. He couldn’t live knowing that he ran somebody over with his car. He’s so lucky that his brakes didn’t fail him, and that he has a decent reliable car that prepares him for a situation like this. 

On another note, none of this would’ve happened if he wasn’t such a goddamn asshole to Keith. If he wouldn’t have been a jealous little baby, he wouldn’t have this ball of guilt eating him from the inside out. 

Sunlight begins to break its way through the curtains and Lance groans in frustration. All he wants to do is  _ sleep!  _ He has work at four, so he wants to at least be able to get fully rested and mentally recover from the events of last night. 

After another half hour of tossing and turning, Lance finally gives up all hope and sits up. He climbs out of bed and wipes his eyes awake, even though they were already fully open and aware. He throws on a pair of sweatpants and a loose T-shirt and makes his way out of his room and down the stairs. Hunk is awake at the dining room table drinking his morning coffee and reading the daily newspaper. Oh right!  _ Hunk _ . Come to think of it, Hunk was asleep during all of the discourse that went down last night so he probably has no idea that anything went wrong. 

Hunk looks up after he hears the faint creaking noise of Lance coming down the stairs, and his face brightens as he makes eye contact with Lance.

“Heyo! Lance! What’s up, man? How'd you sleep?” He says in an overly excited tone for seven in the morning. This isn’t surprising, however, because Hunk has always been a morning person, and it baffles everybody. To be fair, with an early morning job, he kind of  _ has to  _ be a morning person if he doesn’t want to get fired.

“Barely. I was tossing and turning all night.” Lance groans with a defeated look on his face.

“Aw man that sucks. Want some coffee? It’s freshly brewed!” Hunk offers, holding up the coffee pot. 

Hunk always made really good coffee. He didn’t use a fancy coffee maker or anything like that. He made it completely homemade in a  _ pot.  _ He crushed the coffee beans himself, and added his own special ingredients to make the tastiest, most effective coffee on this planet. 

“Yeah. I’ll have a cup.” 

Lance really shouldn’t have coffee if he’s planning on taking a nap before work, but he really just can’t resist right now. 

“So how was your date last night? Did ya reel her back in?” Hunk shimmies his shoulders as he pours coffee into Lance’s cup.

Lance raises an eyebrow, unsure about what Hunk is referring to.  _ Oh right. He went on a date last night. _ So much had happened last night that he had completely forgotten that he went out with his ex-girlfriend Nyma. That was such a small part of his night, that it didn’t even render in his brain how important it was. He  _ went on a date with his ex,  _ how could he forget? 

“It was uh, it was good!” He smiles, not really knowing how else to describe it. It was a normal date, just like they always used to have. He bought her drinks, and they drank together, and made out in the bathroom. What more could he ask for on a reunion date? 

The only  _ off  _ part of it was that Lance actually didn’t end up drinking that much, and that was probably because of his brewing anger with the Keith situation, but that’s all taken care of now, and has nothing to do with Nyma. 

“Just  _ good?  _ Come on, man! Tell me some details” Hunk elbows Lance’s shoulder, winking. 

“Well I mean, yeah! It was just like our old dates at the bar it was- it was nice.” He chuckles, knowing Hunk is hinting about asking if he got laid or not. “And  _ no, _ we didn’t have sex. I wanna go slow this time.” He says, quickly raising his mug to his eager lips and sipping his coffee.

Hunk laughs hysterically, and then looks at Lance with a huge smirk plastered on his face. “Haha, alright, man!  _ Whatever  _ you say.” 

Lance punches his shoulder, his face falling into an embarrassed smile. 

The bedroom door at the end of the hallway opens, and out walks a groggy Keith, wiping his eyes, still appearing to be half asleep. Hunk bolts his glance around and waves. “Hey! Keith! My man! How’d you sleep?” As he walks closer to the table, Hunk squints, and examines his face. “Whoa. What happened? Did you have a bad reaction to the face-mask last night?” 

“Uh. Oh. No, the mask was fine.” He replies, touching his face, running his finger across the scabbed and purple spots marking his skin.

“Oh. Well what happened?” Hunk squints more, examining his face. 

“A lot.” Keith turns to look at Lance, signalling for him to continue the conversation.

Lance sighs, and rubs his hands over his face. “He had  _ quite _ the night last night.” He didn’t even want to say what happened. He feels like such a terrible person because all of it was  _ his _ fault. He looks at Keith’s scrapes. Those were  _ his _ fault. If he would’ve just calmed down and not kicked him out, Keith’s face would be perfectly normal. 

“What happened?” Hunk switches his gaze to Lance.

“Um. Well. I was really stressed out last night, and I-”  _ Lord, _ here it goes. “I kicked him out.” He struggles to say, hiding his face in shame.

“Oh my god! Lance! Why’d ya do that?” Hunk raises an angry eyebrow. 

“It’s a long story, but I realized I was in the wrong, okay?” He snaps back, apologetically. “But I went to go find him after about a half hour.”

“Good.” Hunk interrupts. 

“And then when I saw him, he-” Lance starts, but Keith cuts him off. 

“Can I have some coffee?” Lance and Hunk both dart their gazes up to him.

“Sure! Here, I’ll pour you a glass.” Hunk grabs the coffee pot and artistically pours the coffee into a mug. “Cream or sugar?” 

“No thanks.” Keith dismisses. 

Lance takes this as a hint that Keith doesn’t want him to talk about it in front of Hunk. He doesn’t really blame him because  _ who would  _ want to talk about this? Especially if it happened not even twelve hours ago. 

Lance’s thoughts are cut short after he processes what Keith just muttered. _No cream or sugar?_ _Is he crazy?_ “You like _plain_ coffee?” Lance judges, lightheartedly

Keith awkwardly chuckles, and scratches the back of his head. “Quickest way to get energy, right?”

Lance quickly stops himself from making a  _ maybe I shouldn’t have let you stay  _ joke because it’s definitely too soon for that. “Wow.”

The other door at the end of the hallway opens, and out walks a fully dressed and  _ ready for the da _ y Pidge. She gasps at the sight of Lance sitting at the table. 

“Do my eyes deceive me? Is this  _ Lance _ sitting at the table drinking a cup of coffee in the  _ morning? _ When was the last time you woke up before I did?” She asks with genuine shock in her voice.

“Hah! I actually decided to wake up early for once.” He lies, knowing damn well the only reason he woke up early was because he couldn’t fall asleep at all.

Pidge makes her own cup of coffee and sits down next to Keith. “Black coffee is best coffee.” She whispers into Keith’s ear, nudging his shoulder.

They all sit in silence for a minute enjoying their coffee, before Lance breaks the silence. “So… Keith is our new roommate now.” He informs them, as if they weren’t aware of that already.

“Oh! You’re staying?” Hunk’s face falls into a bright smile. “It’s like, official now?” 

“Yeah. I guess so.” He looks over at Lance, making sure he is correct. Lance nods.

“Yay!” Pidge shouts, throwing her arms around Keith, celebrating.

Lance interrupts Pidge’s shouts. “Not to ruin the happy mood, but Keith, you’re probably going to have to get a job. Y’know, to help out and stuff.” Lance says nervously, not wanting to come off as rude, like he  _ had _ been for the past two days.

“Oh. Yeah. Of course.” He attempts a smile, but still appears to be too  _ out of it _ for the smile to be real.

“Hmmm. What places are hiring around here?” Hunk questions, finishing off his cup of coffee.

Pidge raises a finger. “Oh! There’s that one job at the car garage?” She suggests.

Keith glances over at Lance, and Lance chuckles nervously. “Maybe that wouldn’t be the  _ best _ job for him right now.” 

“Oh, why?” She asks, obliviously.

“I’m not much of a car guy.” Keith interjects.

Pidge gasps. “Wow! You guys have been cool with each other for only about ten hours, and you already know Keith well enough to know he doesn’t like cars?” She sounds proud, and relieved that the two of them are bonding with each other. 

“Yeah!” Lance smiles. 

“Hmmm. Actually, isn’t your job hiring, Lance?” Pidge suggests.

Yesterday, he would have been completely opposed to this idea, but now that things are pretty cleared up between him and Keith, it doesn’t sound too bad after all. “Yeah. We are. We’re hiring waiters right now.” 

“Awesome! Keith! You should totally apply!” She exclaims excitingly. 

Keith’s face is suddenly filled with slight fear. Pidge notices, and pats his shoulder. “Aww, it won’t be too bad. Customers around here are really nice. Right Lance?” She stares over at Lance, who’s downing the last bit of coffee out of his mug.

“Yep. And the tips are  _ amazing _ !” 

“Okay.” Keith groans. “I guess that’ll work.” 

“I can walk you through the application. It’s online.” Lance smiles awkwardly. 

Maybe this’ll be good. It’ll definitely be a way to make sure Pidge and Hunk aren’t completely ditching him. If he could easily be Keith’s friend  _ as well _ , then they would all be friends together, and he wouldn’t be fourth wheeled all the time. Just like how it used to be with Shiro living with them. They all got along great, and did everything together. 

“I’ll get my laptop and we can have you apply before I head to work today.” Lance suggests. Keith nods and his face forms the same awkward, fake, smile again, which makes Lance chuckle internally.    
  


♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢

 

Keith owes a tremendous  _ thank you _ to whoever, or whatever caused this to happen; to whatever entity in the world caused Lance to go pick him up, and for him to stop just in time, before ending Keith’s existence. At the time, he was really disappointed in himself for letting somebody find him, but if he wouldn’t have, he would be gone, and he’s kind of glad he’s still here.

Lance opens his laptop and types in something in the search bar. Before Keith knows it, the computer screen is filled with dozens of empty boxes where he types in all of his information. 

“So this is the application. I’ll give you this so you can fill it out.” He hands Keith the laptop, and he grabs it with hesitation. 

Come to think of it, Keith doesn’t think he’s ever had a  _ real _ job. He used to help out his father with his work at the office, but that really doesn’t count. His dad just paid him money out of his own pocket, and he really didn’t have a set schedule. 

The fact that he’s applying to a  _ real _ job feels simultaneously terrifying, but also a little bit exciting. He  _ is _ applying to be a  _ waiter _ however, which sounds like an absolute nightmare. That would be so much social interaction, and he’s not used to that at all. He’s never really had experience with talking to a bunch of people at once and not being really awkward about it, so this is going to be a challenge for him. But maybe this extreme social interaction would be good for him; it’ll be some practice for learning how to talk to people and treat people. His whole life, he only really talked to his family and the occasional friend or two. He was homeschooled, so he never got to be in the social environment of public schooling, which is what caused him to be the awkward antisocial fuck he is today.

Keith begins to type in the first few boxes. As he types in the  _ Last Name  _ box, Lance gasps. “Your last name is  _ Kogane?” _

“Yeah, why?” He questions, not knowing what the big deal is.

“I don’t know. It sounds familiar, but I can’t put my finger on why.” Lance strokes his hairless chin in thought.

“Well. Let me know if you figure it out.” Keith says with a dismissive sigh before he directs his gaze back on the laptop screen, continuing to fill out the boxes.

Keith continues with the application while Lance helps him occasionally with the stuff he doesn’t know, such as his address, and phone number. Keith was never a tech savvy kind of guy, so Lance had to show him how to find his  _ own _ phone number. After a few more minutes of silence, Lance breaks it with a serious question.

“So. what  _ did _ happen exactly? Like, with your family.” He asks in a soft voice, obviously trying not to sound too pushy.

Keith keeps his eyes on the laptop and begins to bite his lip. He sighs, and closes his eyes for a few seconds.

“No pressure. I mean… I did just kick you out, I don’t blame you for not wanting to tell me.” Lance chuckles, running his hand through his hair.

“It’s okay. Uh. I’ll tell you later. Maybe tonight...” Keith shakes his head, clearing the recurring memories that he did  _ not _ want to think about right now.

“Alright. Sounds good.” Lance nods. “And hey, no pressure, okay?” He puts his hand on Keith’s shoulder. “And uh... I’m sorry again. For you know, kicking you out.” His voice sounds awkward, and all over the place, but it’s a genuine apology nonetheless. It’s obvious that Lance doesn’t really say the word _sorry_ much, so Keith can only imagine how hard it was for him to say that.

Keith looks over at him, and his lips barely make their way into a smile. “I guess I… I accept your apology.” He thinks hard about what words to use because he usually says ‘ _ it's okay’ _ or something like that whenever people apologize to him, but he stopped saying those two words for a very good reason. Saying ‘ _ it’s okay’ _ implies what the other person did was  _ okay  _ and if they do the same action  _ again _ , it’ll still be  _ okay. _ Saying that he ‘ _ accepts somebody’s apology _ ’ means that he accepts that they are sorry for what they did, but he still thinks that it was a shitty thing to do, and isn’t  _ okay. _ Lance left him out in the dust, and he almost ended it all, of course what Lance did wasn't  _ okay. _ But alas, he gave a genuine apology, so Keith knew he had to forgive him. 

“And, sorry I treated you like shit the past few days.” Lance adds on, twirling his fingers together and keeping his eyes locked onto his hands.

“Again, I accept your apology.” Keith nods, turning his eyes back onto the laptop screen.

Keith spends the next half hour finishing up everything else on the application, and it’s finally time to hit the  _ submit _ button. He checks it over probably around eight times, to make sure that everything is perfect, and there are no typos or errors. After he clicks the submit button, Lance cheers a little bit, and Keith smiles. He actually  _ smiles. _ Sure, he’d been ‘ _ smiling’  _ all morning, but they had been fake smiles that were just used to cover up how he was really feeling.  _ Now, _ on the other hand, he’s actually feels his lips forming a real, authentic smile because he just applied to his first job! Just twelve hours ago, he was wandering the streets, trying to find a way to end his life, and now he’s applying to a real life  _ job,  _ one where he isn’t going to be working under the wing of his father. He actually feels somewhat proud of himself, and is excited about what’s going to happen next. He hasn’t felt excited about the future since he was a little boy with big hopes and dreams, so the feeling of exciting anticipation feels really good inside of his head.

“I’ll ask Coran about your application. He’s the manager. I’m  _ sure _ I can get you hired.” He says confidently, shutting his laptop and putting it aside. “Well, I gotta get ready for work, I’ll see ya later, man.” He gets up and begins walking up the stairs.

“See ya.”

Lance turns back when Keith speaks, and shoots him a friendly smile. It’s something that Keith doesn’t think he’s ever seen Lance do, and it fills his heart with a strange warming sensation.

 

♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢ 

 

“Hey, Coran, You have a minute?” Lance peaks his head into the way too extravagantly decorated office. 

Coran looks up from his computer and his face brightens as he sees who’s standing at the door. Lance always boasted about being one of Coran’s favorite employees, which is why he always got raises and special privileges, such as making his own drinks for  _ free _ if Coran was in a good mood. It helped a lot that Coran was  _ always _ in a good mood.

“Ah! Lance! Hello, what’s on your mind?” He twirls his very red moustache, and blinks his eyes.

“So, I know we’re hiring wait staff, so I had one of my _fr- friends_ apply today, and you should _totally_ look at his application. It’s under Keith Kogane.” He says, tripping over the word _friend._ _Is Keith his friend?_ He was his enemy yesterday, so how could he have graduated to _friend_ in such a little amount of time? Well, as much as he hates to admit it, Keith already kind of does kind of feel like a friend to him, even though they’ve only had a few moments of bonding.

Coran shuffles through some tabs on his computer, adjusting his glasses to further examine what he’s looking for. “Ah, let’s see here... “ He clicks on a tab and sits up straight in his chair. “Ah yes! Here we are, Keith Kogane. I’ll take a look at this, and I’m sure I will be getting back to him pretty soon here!” Coran states confidently.  

“Great! Thanks!” Lance smiles, turning out of the doorway and back into the bar to continue his work, where two new customers have filled the empty seats.

 

♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢

 

“Keith, I made some tea, want some?” Pidge’s voice is muffled from the other side of the door. 

Keith jolts out of his half asleep state. “Sure.” He chokes out, before he’s fully awake.

Pidge opens the door and Keith sits up. She’s holding a beautiful white ceramic mug with intricate floral prints on it. There’s a golden, steaming liquid filling the cup. 

“Here you go. It’s chamomile.” Pidge smiles, seating herself on the side of Keith’s bed. 

“Thanks, Pidge.”

She looks down at the sheets, and runs her finger across the floral print on the comforter. “So, are you okay?” She questions.

“What do you mean?” Keith asks, blowing softly into his tea to cool it off. 

“You’ve been kind of  _ different _ today. Like, you seem really out of it, dude.” She glances at Keith with a caring look in her eyes.

“How?” Keith asks, acting like he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. He knows  _ exactly  _ what she means. Last night really knocked all of the energy out him, emotionally, mentally, and physically. All day he’d just been pretty much either half asleep on his bed or lost in thought, staring at the ceiling. His small spark of energy from the cup of coffee only lasted about thirty minutes at best, and even with that, he still wasn’t as energized as he usually is. 

“You seem more tired than usual, did you sleep well last night?” 

“Yeah- I mean,” He cuts himself off. He  _ did _ sleep well last night, but he knows if he says that, Pidge is going to be even more concerned about why he had been so tired today. “Actually not really. I was tossing and turning quite a bit.” He shifts his answer to ease Pidge’s worrying about him. He’s not entirely sure why, but he doesn’t really want to tell Pidge, or anybody else for that matter, about what happened last night. It’s a sensitive topic for him, obviously, and he wants to keep the thought of it to a minimum. And he knows if he tells her, she’s going to ask a ton of questions, which’ll just negatively impact his brain even more. He also doesn’t want her to worry too much about him. Even though they are only a few days into their friendship, he knows that she already cares a  _ lot _ about him, and would be a complete wreck if she knew what he tried to do yesterday.

“Okay. Well if you need anything else, just let me know, okay?” Pidge smiles, the concerned look still present on her face. 

“Alright. Thank you, Pidge.” Keith takes a sip of his tea, which has cooled off just enough for him to safely take small sips of it without burning his mouth up.

“No problem!” She smiles. “Oh, and, I know you had some trouble with  _ Lance, _ and I talked to him about it, and he won’t treat you like trash anymore. Just let me know if he does, and I’ll beat his ass.” She jokes, but a hint of seriousness is prevalent in her voice.

“He’s been nicer to me, so I think everything is fine.” Keith smiles back. It’s a small, weak smile, but it’s still a smile. 

“Great! Well, I better let you get your beauty sleep. Hopefully you sleep better tonight.” She stands up from the bedside and makes her way to the door. “Night, Keith!” The door shuts behind her, leaving Keith in the room alone with nothing except his thoughts.

_ BZZT BZZT. _

His phone vibrates, almost instantly after she closes the door. It startles Keith every time because he’s still not used to his phone making noise like that. He looks down at the screen and to his surprise, it’s actually  _ not _ his brother Shiro, hopelessly trying to contact him. It’s a number he doesn’t recognize, but he unlocks his phone and reads the message nonetheless. 

 

**Maybe: Coran**

> _ Greetings Keith! This is Coran from the Five Lions Bar and Grille and I just recently looked over your application, and I was wondering if you would be available for an interview tomorrow at six o’clock? Thank you, and I can’t wait to hear back from you! _

_ Coran _

 

The same smile that infested Keith’s face when he hit the submit button crept its way back as he lays on his bed, reading the message over and over again. Tons of emotions fill his body, as he thinks about how to write his reply. He’s excited and happy, but also extremely nervous. He’s never done an interview before, so how the hell is he going to prove himself good enough to have a job there? He’s not the best at talking to strangers, and doesn’t really have developed social skills enough for him to come off as a decent human being, so he really needs to prepare himself.

 

**Keith**

> _ Hello Coran! I’d love to come in tomorrow for an interview. See you then! _

_ Keith _

 

Hopefully that message was good enough. It was good enough right? Was it  _ too _ casual? Yet, on another note, was it  _ too _ formal?  _ Ahhh.  _ Keith is panicking and really wants to rewrite the whole message, but it’s already sent. Well, to be fair, Coran  _ texted _ him instead of calling or emailing, so it must be pretty casual, and not too big of a deal.

  
Keith lays down on his pillow, fully expecting to be able to fall asleep after three minutes, but instead, he lay, eyes wide open, lost in thought. Except this time, his thoughts aren’t trailing back to what happened  _ last night _ ; they are about what positive things are to come, and he can’t wait to find out what they are.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my opinion, chamomile tea is kind of gross, but I feel like Keith would be one to like it, right?
> 
> Thank you guys for reading, I appreciate it so much <3
> 
> Leave comments and kudos as you desire~


	8. Interviews, Cookies, and Pep Talks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hunk is a baker
> 
> Pidge gets second
> 
> Keith can do this!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaa season seven is fast approaching and I'm not quite ready. :.( Hope it's amazing!
> 
>  
> 
> I love this chapter so much, it's really fun and lighthearted. I figured there should still be some calm before the storm of what is to come. But enjoy, and thank you so much for reading <3

 

 

 

“I don’t know if I can do this, Lance I-” Keith shakes his head, fidgeting his fingers into an intertwined knot. 

Lance cuts him off. “You’ll do fine. Coran isn’t that scary of a guy anyway.” He turns off the ignition, cutting off the sound of the engine, leaving the car filled with nothing but pure silence.

“What’s he going to ask me anyway?” Keith speaks after a few moments, trying to calm down his increasingly high heart rate.

“I wish I could tell ya.” Lance shakes his head, but attempts to reassure. “It isn’t going to be anything that isn’t easy to answer.” Lance reassures, awkwardly resting his hand on Keith’s shoulder in support.

“Are you sure?” He looks up, with worry spread across his face.

“Yeah. He just asked me questions about myself, and why I wanted to work there. It was nothing special.” 

“But why  _ do _ I want to work here. I can’t just say I need a job to help pay for rent!” Keith panics, holding his hand out and curling his fingers in adrenaline. 

“Just say… uh… you really like working with customers, and are interested in the restaurant business.” Lance suggests, shrugging his shoulders, backing away from Keith with slight fear.  

“So you want me to lie to him?” Keith very obviously does  _ not _ like working with customers, or any other human beings for that matter.

“I mean, just- don't overthink it, man. It’s a really casual interview. That’s why I didn’t have you dress up too much.” Lance gestures to Keith’s outfit. He had him wear a pair of his black jeans, which had to be rolled up on his ankles because Lance is a few inches taller than Keith. The pants are accompanied by a black button down shirt with small white dots scattered intricately over it. His hair is brushed neatly, and his face is freshly washed. When he looked in the mirror, he can’t say he wasn’t happy with how he looked, because he actually looked pretty damn okay.

“Ahhh. Lance.” Keith panics a little bit more, a small microscopic drop of sweat forming at the top of his forehead. Lance plants both of his hands firmly onto Keith’s shoulders, grounding him.

“You can do this. You have five minutes, so you better go in there. I”ll be in the car waiting for you when you’re done. It should only be like a fifteen minute interview.” Lance proceeds to shoo Keith out of the car, worried that he may be late if he didn’t get his ass inside the building.

“ _ Fifteen minutes?!”  _ Keith yells, but his voice is cut off from Lance as he pulls the car door shut after Keith exits, leaving him outside in the parking lot, with nothing to do except walk towards the front entrance of the restaurant. As he walks up to the doors, he darts a gaze back at Lance, who holds up a thumb to him, and an awkward smile. He can see him mouth something out along the signs of  _ “you got this” _ but he can’t say for sure.

The doors are a bit heavier than Keith originally expected upon viewing them, which takes him by surprise, but he really doesn’t pay much attention to that because he’s about to  _ have his first job interview. _

How the hell did he make it to his  _ twenties, _ yet still never had a real job interview? Had he really been that much of a lazy bum all his life? Sure he worked with his dad, but that didn’t require an interview; he was just ‘ _ hired’ _ on the spot after his dad wanted him to stop asking for money.

As he walks in, the host greets him with a bright smile and asks how many people he has with him. The host is a slim, pretty girl with a long red ponytail, flowing from the top of her head. He doesn’t really know how to say that he’s not here to eat, and he’s actually here for an interview, so he just opens his mouth, and hopes for the best that whatever comes out makes sense. 

“Um, yeah, hi, I’m actually here for an interview? At, 6:00?” His voice is a little shaky, but it’s barely noticeable. 

“Oh! Alright! Just take a seat right there and I’ll get the boss!” She says in a high, feminine voice, turning her back to walk away. As she walks, her ponytail sways back and forth across her back, placing something moving into Keith’s point of view. He stares at her dancing hair, attempting to find any kind of distraction to keep his mind off of his nerves, but the mesmerizing sashay comes to an end as soon as she rounds the corner at the back of the restaurant.

Keith sits, panicking for a few minutes, waiting in anticipation for whoever this  _ Coran _ guy is to show up in front of him. He attempts to plot out in his head of what is he going to say, and how he is going to answer his questions.  _ How can he plan out what he wants to say if he has no idea what he’s going to be asked?  _ His out of control thoughts are really  _ not _ helping with his anxiety right now.

He doesn’t even see anybody approaching, before a preppy British-accented voice is heard from above him. 

“Hello! You must be Mr. Keith, am I correct?” Keith darts his head up to see a tall, red-haired, middle-aged man in front of him. He twirls his perfectly groomed moustache as he speaks, and his eyes are squinted, due to his abnormally big smile.

“Oh, Yeah I’m Keith. Hi.” He spits out, not wanting to go  _ too _ long without saying anything, causing him to have little to no time to plan what to say.

“Wondrous! Now just follow me, and we will have our conversation in my office!” He declares, turning around and walking slowly, making sure Keith is following behind him. 

Just by this awkward introduction, Keith can tell that this  _ Coran _ dude is way less intimidating than he first imagined. For some reason, he had imagined him to be a six and a half foot buff guy with a deep and threatening voice; he guessed that would be the kind of person to run a bar and grille type of joint, but apparently it’s a different story here. Coran seems like a really easily approachable kind of guy so far, and Keith actually feels like this interview may not be so bad. He hopes.

They eventually reach a very brightly lit office, and Coran signals for Keith to take a seat in a chair conveniently placed on the other side of the table as him. 

“Alrighty! So just to be clear, you are Keith Ko- ga- nay, correct?” He sounds out Keith’s full name, making sure he has the pronunciation correct. Keith nods, and attempts to smile brightly at him, but probably just ends up looking a little ridiculous. He has a pretty small mouth, so maybe he shouldn’t try to smile  _ super big _ .

“Very nice last name! It really rolls neatly off the tongue!” Coran says, licking his finger, and flipping the packet of paper he has rested in front of him. “So, to start, why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself, Mr. Keith.” He sets the packet down and intertwines his fingers together, resting them on the table.

Lucky for Keith, he had prepared for this question quite a bit. Even though he didn’t completely know what questions were going to be asked, this one is a pretty basic and obvious one. He’s glad he had time to prep for this question because there's  _ no way in hell _ he could have answered this on the spot. 

“Well, I’m Keith. I’m a pretty quiet person, but I’m very friendly. I’m definitely an introvert.” He chuckles. “But I’m pretty good with martial arts, which is a cool fact about me.” As he speaks, he realizes how messy it all sounds. He sounds like he’s participating in one of those awkward,  _ awkward  _ summer camp ice breakers where you have to say one fun fact about yourself.  _ He hopes he doesn’t come off as boring. _

“Ah, Very cool! Martial arts is an extremely intense hobby, and I applaud you for partaking in that!” He inaudibly claps his hands together, and then forms them back into the same intertwined position they were in before. He then looks down at the packet, prepping the next question.

“Alright, what is one of your  _ biggest weaknesses? _ ” 

Shit. Keith hadn’t even  _ thought _ of any type of answer for this one. He knew that this was a basic interview question, but for some reason, it totally slipped past his mind when he was running through the interview in his head. He knows that he has to be careful about what he says here, because if his weakness is  _ too _ bad, then he may not get hired. He doesn’t want it to be too basic either, such as,  _ being too much of a perfectionist _ or something like that because Google told him that that’s the most used answer for this question. He doesn’t want to sound like an idiot or a dick.  _ Think Keith, think... _

Much like he did with the hostess, he opens his mouth, and hopes for the best. “I, uh- I guess maybe,” He starts, still unsure of where he’s going with the answer, but he finally settles on something. “Maybe because I’m introverted, it may be a little bit harder for me to speak loudly, or open up to coworkers.” He chokes out, hoping it makes sense.

Coran hums, and nods. “Hmmm. I understand completely! I used to be an introvert myself, so I know deep down where you are coming from! Social interactions are definitely more of an art than a science...” He trails off his speech, looking down at the paper in some sort of deep reflection. 

_ Whew. _ With each question he answers, Keith feels simultaneously relieved, but also nervous about the next question to come. He braces himself by gripping onto the arm of his chair while Coran glances down at the packet to pick the next question. His knuckles begin to turn white as a result of his growing tension.  

“Tell me how others would describe you.” Coran twists his moustache, the same bright and huge smile spread across his face.

Keith thinks deeply about this one. His frantic mind his filled with thoughts of the last year, and the event that got him into this mess. He knows how his mother and father would describe him:  _ A disappointment. Not what they wanted. An inconvenience _ . His uncle wouldn’t have described him as anything really. He didn’t really bond well with him, and they didn’t know each other very well. The only other people’s descriptions that he could go off of were those of his new roommates, Pidge, Hunk, and... Lance. 

Though, he doesn’t really know them very well yet; not well enough to know how they would describe him. Maybe he just has to make something up for this one. Or he could just try his best, and hope that whatever comes out of his mouth is  _ good. _

“Uh, I’ve been told I’m…” He thinks back to his conversations with Pidge. “Courageous.” His mind wanders next to Hunk’s amazing meals. “A foodie?” Suddenly his head is filled with the events of two nights ago, and the dumb boy with those blue eyes who somehow simultaneously hurt him  _ and  _ saved him. “And, luck also seems to be on my side. I’ve been told I’m a  _ lucky _ guy.” 

“Lucky? Ooh that is very truly stupendous! What has happened recently to make you a  _ lucky guy?” _ Coran replies, jotting down notes on the paper.

“Uh, well, I… I” Keith stammers. He was lucky that Lance picked him up. He was lucky that Lance’s brakes didn’t fail him. He was lucky that he jumped into the road, and out from behind the bush  _ just _ one second too early.  _ As lucky as that is, he just can’t open up to this guy, as nice as he seems. _

“I found twenty bucks in the parking lot right outside.”

“You found twenty bucks in the parking lot? Wowie! Never in my seventeen years of being employed here have I  _ ever _ found any sort of currency in our parking lot!” Coran gasps, widening his eyes in disbelief, before grabbing at the blue collar of his shirt and glancing down at the table. “Well except that play money with the picture of King Groggery the Infirm on it, but that’s besides the point.” Coran says, twiddling his thumbs, before coming to a realization that Keith is  _ still  _ in front of him. “Oh how amazing! Your parking lot luck must be a sign!” He winks. Keith smiles, and looks down trying not to freak out at how  _ well _ this interview is going. 

It isn’t over yet though. There’s still time to fuck this all up. 

“Alright, last question.”  _ Thank god. _ Keith exhales in relief, then instantly tenses up again as Coran begins to read it to him. “Why should we hire you?” Keith jolts as he hears the question being asked, and Coran notices, and a lighthearted chuckle escapes his mouth. “Don’t let that intimidate you, lad! It’s just a basic question we always ask!” He smiles brightly once again.

Why should they hire him? He’s literally just near homeless boy that had been wandering the streets trying to find a place to stay. He doesn’t even have any experience with being a waiter or working with customers in the first place. The only two things he’s able to do is operate a pallet jack and flip someone over his head. Why  _ should _ they even hire him? Because he really needs a job? That isn’t good enough, he needs to think of a real reason, and  _ fast. Don’t fuck it up Keith, don’t fuck it up! _

“I really think I could do a good job with the customers, and I work pretty fast.” He blurts out in an unorganized fashion, again, unsure and anxious if what he said made any sense at all.

“Brilliant!” Coran practically shouts, a large smile forming on his face as he circles some things on the packet. “Well, I don’t see any red flags here, so I shall put you into our system!” He says with intense excitement, tapping his fingers across his keyboard.

_ What? _ He’s done already, and he’s already getting hired? Don’t people usually have to wait for them to  _ call _ or something after an interview? But here he is, already getting his name put into the employee list? Already? 

“So I’m getting hired like,  _ right now?”  _ Keith asks, confused. 

“Yessiree! I have you all set.” He presses the enter key, and turns his revolving chair to face Keith again. “Say, when do you think you would be available to start?” He twirls his moustache again.

“I mean, I guess I could, uh, anytime really. I’m pretty open.” Keith shrugs, still in shock that he’s freakin’  _ hired.  _

“Brilliant! I do happen to have an opening starting tomorrow at 4PM that lasts until ten. Would that be of interest to you?” He asks, taking down a piece of paper, stuck to the bulletin board on the wall. 

“Sounds good.”

“Alrighty, I’ll write your name down. You will be training tomorrow with our hostess  _ Ezor. _ She is brilliant and will help you with anything you need!” He declares, posting what appears to be the weekly schedule back on the wall. “Alright Mr. Keith, you have a wondrous rest of your night, and we shall see you tomorrow!” He nods, standing up from his chair. Keith stands up too, and begins to walk out of the room, and towards the lobby. 

As he’s walking, he notices that the same hostess that greeted him has a nametag on. He squints his eyes to be able to make out the name neatly printed on it. To his surprise, the name on it is  _ ‘Ezor’ _ , and he smiles.

Keith pushes through the front door of the restaurant. He sees Lance staring at him through the windows of the car with what seems to be a growing look of anticipation on his face.

“So! How did it go!” Lance pushes, as Keith opens the car door. 

“God, dude!” He starts, a smile already forming over his lips. “It went so good! He hired me right then and there.” 

“What! Dude! That’s awesome. When do you start?” Lance’s face brightens, and he starts laughing in excitement. 

“Tomorrow, at four.”

“Really?” Lance yells in surprise. “I work at four tomorrow too! Perfect!” He turns the key, starting the engine. 

“I’m training with  _ Ezor _ apparently.” He nods, looking at Lance, waiting for him to tell him his opinions on her.

“Oh cool. She’s good. Kind of funny, and she plays dumb sometimes.” Lance laughs, draping his arm over the steering wheel. “I think she’ll train you up nicely.”

They drive back to the house, except there's no awkward silence to fill the air this time around. 

 

♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢

 

“Dammit!” Pidge shouts, throwing her joycon down to the ground in frustration. “Second place again!” 

“Hey, at least you aren’t getting eighth every time.” Hunk teases as he’s still frantically trying to finish the race.

“You don’t understand, I was robbed of first place by  _ Baby Peach! _ ” She screams, pointing her hand towards the television. “ _ Baby Peach _ !” 

Hunk laughs hysterically at Pidge’s frustration, and throws his controller down with a huff of air as he  _ finally _ crosses the finish line. “Make that  _ tenth.”  _ He wipes a drop of sweat from his forehead. 

Pidge darts her head up at the clock on the wall. “Oh shit, what time is it? Hunk! It’s time to take the cookies out of the oven!” Hunk jolts out of his seat, and jogs into the kitchen. 

Pidge hears a loud  _ whew _ of relief as Hunk opens the oven door. “They’re perfect!” He yells from the kitchen. Pidge can’t contain her excitement, so she leaps to her feet, and books it to the kitchen, where the sweet, toasty aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies fills her nostrils. They’re golden brown and crisp on the outside, and light and chewy looking on the inside. “Hunk! These look amazing! Keith is going to love them!” She smirks. “And Lance. Lance is going to love them too.” 

“I know they look so good! Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I think I did a pretty damn good job.” Hunk looks up and closes his eyes in pride. He sets his hands on his hips, and forms a confident posture in his shoulders. 

He looks down, inching his hands closer to the cookies, and licking his lips in anticipation. “We should eat one now right? Just to, uh, make sure they’re good enough to serve?” 

Pidge slaps his hand away from the cookies. “No!” She snaps. “We made twenty four cookies. Imagine how  _ odd _ it would be if we served twenty  _ three _ cookies when Keith and Lance got home. That’s such a weird amount of cookies to bake, and they would  _ know _ that we caved in and ate one before they got here. 

Hunk’s face falls into a look of shame and disappointment. “Fine. But do you really think they would care?” He looks up, hoping for her to let him splurge.

“No, but,” She begins, searching for a reason for Hunk not to have a cookie. “Just wait, okay?”

Hunk groans in disappointment, and hunger. “ _ Finnnne.”  _

“Speaking of that, they should be home pretty quick here!” Pidge raises her high-tech smart watch up to her eyes to read the time. Despite her wearing glasses, she still squints at the time on the watch, obviously still unable to see clearly even with her prescription lenses. 

Almost as if it’s on command, as soon as she speaks, the keyhole on the door jiggles, signalling Keith and Lance’s return. Pidge quickly darts her gaze to Hunk, who’s precisely positioning the cookies on the plate to spell the letter ‘ _ K’ _ , but is only about half way done. “Hunk! Hurry the hell up, they’re  _ here!” _ She screams through her teeth, muffling the noise so that they couldn’t hear her under any circumstances.

When Pidge hears the front door swing open, she strolls into the living room to greet them. “Hey!  _ Oh my God, _ how did it go?” She yells happily, already knowing the answer based on Keith’s content smile. 

“I got hired, like, on the spot. It went very well!” He opens his arms up for a hug, which takes Pidge by surprise because  _ she’s  _ usually the one to initiate the hugs. 

“Ahhhh!” She screams into his shoulders. “I’m so happy for you!” 

Lance interjects, “His first day is tomorrow, and I work the same hours as him.” He smiles.

“That’s like so perfect!” She pulls away from Keith. “Ooh!” She holds up a finger in the air. “We have a  _ surprise _ for both of you!  _ Hunk!” _ She screams into the kitchen.

A few seconds later, Hunk walks out with a sheet pan full of cookies, spelling out the letter ‘K’. Keith gasps at the sight of it, and his face collapses into a happy smile. Pidge looks at Lance, whose also beginning to laugh a little bit at how charmingly ugly it looks. 

“I made cookies!” Hunk yells, ripping off the oven mitt from his hand, and reaching to pick up a cookie, that he had been waiting to eat for the past ten minutes. He holds up a cookie in the air, “To our new roommate, Keith!”

They all sit around the dining room table, chattering about everything about the day. Keith speaks more than usual, and it’s clear that he’s really excited about how well his interview went. Hunk eats about ten cookies over a span of twenty minutes, and for once, Lance isn’t being passive aggressive while in the presence of Keith. It almost feels like they have all been friends for several years, and they are just having casual bonding time, eating cookies together on a regular weeknight. It definitely doesn’t feel like the first night that they are all together, in their house. It feels so natural and  _ right _ . Over the six month period where it was just Pidge, Hunk, and Lance, they all  _ got along  _ well, but there was still a missing piece that they couldn’t quite place their hands on. They were missing somebody to bind them all together into one big friend group. Pidge feels a warmth in her chest, knowing that they have a new roommate, and he is the best one she could have asked for.

All the cookies are gone by the end of the night, and they all eventually shuffle off to bed. Pidge end up going last since she has to wash to baking sheet.  _ Apparently nobody else likes to do dishes around here...  _  
  


♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢  
  


As soon as Lance’s head hits his pillow, it’s obvious that he’s going to be able to fall asleep much easier than two nights ago. He’s had time to destress from the night Keith left, and now his mental state is fully restored, granting him the ability to rest. Just five minutes after getting in bed, he already feels his eyes getting heavy, and it feels  _ so good _ . 

Just as he’s about to fall asleep, his phone vibrates. He groans, and debates not even checking it, but his curiosity gets the best of him, and he picks it up, instantly blinding himself with the bright screen.

It’s a text from Shiro.  _ God damn it, _ Shiro. He always seems to only text him when it’s late at night. Usually Lance doesn’t care, but tonight he’s actually  _ tired. _

 

**Shiro**

> _ Hey, is it okay if I drop by tomorrow to clean out my stuff? _

 

Lance stares at the message for a few seconds, unsure if he has enough energy to reply.

 

**Lance**

> _ Yeah sure what time? _

**Shiro**

> _ I don’t know yet, maybe in the evening? Like 8 or 9. _

**Lance**

> _ alright. I’ll probably be at work, but Hunk and Pidge will be here _

**Shiro**

> _ Sounds good.  _

> _ Hey, is that one guy still staying with you? _

**Lance**

> _ Yup. He’s our roommate now...actually. _

**Shiro**

_ >Oh wow, cool. So you ARE replacing me, huh? _

**Lance**

> _ lmao I guess so! _

**Shiro**

_ >Alright, well I’ll see you tomorrow. Or not, if you’re still at work. _

**Lance**

> _ See ya, scarface ;) _

**Shiro**

> _ Ew. Come on, you’re still calling me that dumb nickname? _

**Lance**

_ >I almost forgot about it, but i’m glad I remembered. _

_ >I’ll always call you that.   _

**Shiro**

> _ Goodnight -_- _

 

Lance throws his phone down, finally allowing himself to fall into a much needed, restful, slumber. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Coran is so goofy. 
> 
> Stay tuned for upcoming angst. <3
> 
> Love you all.


	9. Tablets, Blenders, and Blue Lighting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is confused
> 
> Hunk is an absolute mess
> 
> Ezor isn't stupid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This update is so late I'm sorry. :c 
> 
> But here it is! :D 
> 
> Enjoy

 

 

 

Keith and Lance both stand in the doorway in the same outfit. Lance lent Keith one of his extra uniforms for the day to be absolutely sure he doesn’t come off as being unprepared. He knows that Keith is going to get a work uniform as he arrives today anyway, but because of Lance’s overachieving nature, he wants Keith to come off as ready and prepared for his first day on the job.

“Aren’t they going to ask how I already have a uniform?” Keith mumbles, tugging at his collar, anxiously trying to fix it into place.

“Relax. If they ask, I’ll handle it.” Lance straightens his collar, looking in the mirror with an appealing smirk. Even though he’s just going to work, he still needs to make sure he looks decent. He never knows when Nyma is gonna appear at one of his barstools again… 

They both walk out the front door, Pidge and Hunk cheering Keith on and wishing him good luck at his first day of work. It’s definitely a bit crazy that a stranger who showed up at Lance’s door about a week ago now works with him. He didn’t think it would get this far honestly; he imagined that night that Keith would be in his house for less than a day and be back on his way. But now, a week later, Keith is still a part of his life, and he honestly can’t say he’s mad about that.

Lance turns on the car and begins to back out of the driveway, catching a glimpse at the pale, jumpy boy seated next to him. Keith is nervous, Lance can tell that much. He didn’t eat much of a lunch, and even kept his conversations short. To be fair, Keith never really talks much anyway, but _today_ , it’s pretty noticeable.

“You ready, man?” Lance lightly punches Keith’s shoulder. It still feels different being cool with Keith, but he’s starting to _like_ _it_ more and more. 

“As ready as I’m gonna be.” He sighs, resting his head on the window. 

“Don’t worry. Ezor is really nice! And, Allura is nice too. She’s closing tonight.” Lance says, the tone of his voice going from enthusiastic, to quiet and dull.

Keith looks over at Lance. “Should I be concerned?” He asks, noticing the change in Lance’s tone. 

“Nah.” He dismisses with a chuckle, but he knows it isn’t good enough for Keith. “I had a thing for her, but uh. Yeah, no stress necessary.” He says, softly shaking his head and tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. 

“Oh. Gotcha.” Keith ends the conversation, not wanting to make Lance uncomfortable. 

“I’m over it though, we ended on good terms.” Lance clarifies, and then falls into a supportive grin. “And actually, my old roommate is going out with her now.”

“Oh, cool.” Keith nods his head against the window, closing his eyes to try and calm his nerves.

They continue the commute to work, half in silence, and half in detailed conversation. Lance is the one to do most of the talking, but Keith’s okay with that.    
  


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“Keith! Greetings to you, my fellow! Welcome to your first day on the job!” Coran shouts from his office as he sees Keith enter the building. Coran signals for him to come into the office and he hesitantly does so.

“By golly goodness! You already have a uniform on?” He strokes his beard into a sharp point.

“Yeah! I lent it to him!” Lance’s smiling face suddenly appears in the doorway, causing Coran to jolt in his chair. 

“Oh, goodness me!” Coran clutches at his chest in shock. “Lance, good to see you’re on top of things like always!” He chuckles, holding his thumb up in approval.

Keith can’t help but feel a smile forming on his lips at how ridiculous this guy is. He’s really fun to listen to and just gives off a really humorous and welcoming vibe.

“Well Keith, looks like you’ll have  _ two _ lovely uniforms to own now! Once you’re done with your shift, just come pick it up here in the office!” Coran states, picking up his messenger bag and getting up to exit the office. “Well, good day to you all! My shift is up.” He yells to everybody in the kitchen area, and then turns to Keith. “And if you have any important questions, my colleague Allura will assist you!” He pats him on the back, and turns to walk out the front door of the restaurant.  

Before Keith can even think, a face pops up in front of him, and it’s super familiar. It’s the same hostess girl from yesterday. 

“Hey, you’re Keith right?” She asks in a gentle, high pitched tone.

“Yeah!” He states, smiling. “Hey.” He adds on, but regrets it because of how awkward it sounded.  _ Keith! _ You can’t come off as awkward, that's a bad first impression.

“Hey how are you?” she smiles, squinting her eyes, and continues talking before Keith can answer. “So I’m going to be training you on being a waiter today!” Her voice is welcoming and friendly, something Keith isn’t used to hearing.

“Awesome.” He replies back, a few moments later. She then walks away, signaling for Keith to follow. She walks over to a shelf with a bunch of tablets on them. 

“As a waiter, you will need one of these super cool things!” She picks up one of the tablets and presses its buttons to turn it on, and get it set up. “This’ll track which tables you are in charge of, and you can do all the tipping and order taking on here!” Her voice is excited and enthusiastic, and it appears to Keith that she’s actually really excited to be training someone. 

She continues to train him, teaching him everything he needs to know about being organized with his tables, how to take orders, and everything about customer service and how to be a good person. Keith laughs a few times at the jokes Ezor is tying in to their conversation, and he’s just overall having a fun time. And his first table is actually not as bad as he thought it would be. When he speaks to the customers, his voice isn’t awkward, and he actually sounded genuinely friendly. 

After his first table was finished eating, and left, he came to the realization that he actually gets  _ tips. _ He knew in the back of his mind that all waiters and waitresses get tips, but now it’s a reality which doesn’t seem real. This pile of dollar bills laying on this table is just, for  _ him? _ He gets to keep it?

“This is mine, right?” Keith points to the money on the table, and turns his gaze to Ezor. 

‘Yes! All yours buddy!” Ezor nods in approval. 

Awesome! Keith says, then turns around to go check on his customers.

 

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Lance’s night is going pretty damn well. He finally mastered this bottle juggling trick that he had been working on for three months, and made well over forty dollars in tips as well. He’s been glancing over at Keith every so often, and it looks like he’s having a good time, so that’s nice to see. After it begins to die down a little bit, he sees a familiar face walk into the bar and he feels a sudden pounding in his chest. 

_ Nyma really came? _

“Hey! Nyma! How’- hows it going?” Lance stutters over his words, trying his best to sound charming. He totally did not expect to see her here tonight. Is she gonna make surprising him at work a  _ thing _ again? Well, she always used to visit him when they used to be together, but he didn’t think it was something that was going to continue. 

“Fancy seeing you here.” He winks, kneeling down, resting his elbow on the counter in front of them. 

“Hey Lance.” She smiles, and plants a kiss on his arm. “Can I have my usual tonight?” She hugs his arm.

“Of course, m’wonderful lady.” Lance smirks, winking his eye, and pouring her a glass of her favorite, rum and coke. 

“So when am I gonna see you again?” Nyma hints, taking the first sip of her beverage.

“Hmmmm, anytime you want! Whatcha got planned?” Lance says, tilting his head sideways in curiosity. 

“Well there’s this party, and like, I usually don’t party much anymore, but I really really wanna go.” She sounds excited, and antsy.

“Hnmmm well I’m guessing you want somebody to accompany you?” Lance blinks his eyes flirtatiously.

“I do.” Nyma says with a smirk.

“Well when is this party? I’d love to come.” He blinks again. 

Deep in the back of his mind, Lance knew he hated parties. They always end up too intense, and half the time everybody starts making out with whatever person they are closest to. But who could say no to Nyma’s gorgeous face?

“The 23rd. In about two weeks. Just come pick me up and I’ll tell you where to go.” She runs her hand across his arm, stroking it passionately. 

“Sounds good.” Lance says with a wink.

 

♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢

 

The dinner rush slowly dies down, and as soon as Keith has no more customers to serve, he takes all of his tips out of his pocket, and counts how much he has. Seven ones, four fives, and a ten.  _ Thirty seven dollars. _ Keith strolls over to Ezor, who is quickly wiping down tables in preparation for close.

“Are you sure this is actually all mine?” Keith asks, figuring that there is still some sort of catch here that he isn’t aware of.

“Again, it’s yours. You keep it all!” She eclaims, resting her shoulder on the wall next to Keith.

Keith happily shoves the money back into his pocket and turns to Ezor. “Wow. Cool.”

He pivots his head around the restaurant. He had been so occupied with his customers, that he hasn’t really had the chance to admire how beautiful the decorations are in this place. There’s not one square inch of empty wall space. Each surface is covered in colorful photographs and paintings, all morphing together into one big piece of artwork. The brass chandeliers that hang from the ceiling are stunningly gorgeous and provide a moody lighting over the whole dining area; they aren’t extremely fancy, but they still manage to fit in with the artistic aesthetic of the restaurant. 

As Keith turns his head more, he realizes the most visually appealing part of this place is the  _ bar. _ The various glass bottles of alcohol are intricately placed on the shelves, creating a diverse display of options. Set behind them is a wall of vibrant blue light that illuminates the bar and everything around it.

His gaze eventually falls on Lance, whose face is glowing from the light. His entire figure is washed in a shade of beautifully soft blue, and he looks absolutely  _ amazing. _ Judging by his languid motions and bags under his eyes, Keith can tell that he is tired out, despite being on the other side of the building. Even though he looks like an exhausted train wreck, Keith can’t say that Lance doesn’t look  _ really damn attractive _ right now. 

As Keith comes to his senses, he realizes that Lance has been talking to the same customer for a long time, and it looks like they are inching themselves closer to one another. As the customer leans in more to Lance’s face, he can see that it’s an attractive woman, and she is  _ definitely _ more than just a regular customer. 

“Whatcha staring at?” Ezor questions, turning her head to look in the same direction as Keith.

She laughs as it’s pretty obvious what Keith has been gazing at for the past five minutes. “Got the hots for our blue-eyed bartender?” She jokes, nudging his shoulder.

Keith shakes his head. “No, no- I was just looking at how pretty the decor around the bar is.” He scratches his elbow, looking down to the floor.

“Come on, Lance looks absolutely stunning in that bar lighting. Even I can admit that.” She crosses her arms, looking at Keith, knowingly. 

“It  _ is _ really good lighting…” Keith gives in.

“Are you…?” She smirks at him. 

“Am I what?” 

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” 

Keith feels his stomach brew with nervousness, and his cheeks begin to feel a tint of warm wash over them. “No, I don’t. What?” He continues, having a  _ pretty good _ idea about what she is going to ask. 

“Lance. Do you like, y’know…” she winks, pointing her thumb in his direction. She crosses her arms, and leans back onto the wall. 

“Uh. No… why?” He asks, trying to sound confused. 

“I don’t know. You  _ were  _ just like, staring at him for six minutes.  _ I don’t know. _ ” She teases, holding her fingers up to her lips to mask the giggles. 

Had it really been  _ six minutes?  _ It definitely did not feel like six minutes.

“I told you I was looking at the decor.” He tries, but it’s already too late.

“You don’t have to lie, I’m a trustworthy person!” She holds her hand flat underneath her chin and beams a smile. 

“I’m a guy though. And so is he.” Is all Keith can find himself saying. It sounds cold, and wrong coming out of his mouth. It makes him sound like a close-minded straight guy, and he cringes at the sound of his own voice.

Ezor scoffs, “So? Guys can like guys, and girls can like girls.” She explains, making Keith feel super uncomfortable because he’s totally coming off as somebody he isn’t. “For example,” she continues. “I am a girl, and I have a  _ girlfriend.” _

Keith doesn’t know how to process what she is saying. _ She’s gay too? _ He probably seems like an oblivious asshole who doesn’t know what being gay is. “Really?” He spits out.

“Yeah! I’m just teasing you though, if you don’t think he’s attractive that’s okay I was just joking.” She punches him lightly, and laughs. 

Keith can already tell his face is noticeably pink. “Uh, actually I-” he begins to say without thought, but stops himself before it’s too late.  _ Why would you just say that, Keith? _

Ezor looks at him, waiting for him to finish his sentence. “You what?” 

Welp,  _ there’s no turning back now. _ “I  _ do  _ think he’s attractive, maybe. Like a little bit? In this lighting. I don’t know about any other lighting but-” He rambles before Ezor cuts him off.

“I knew it! The  _ gaydar _ never lies.” She smiles, contently.

“ _ Gay- dar?”  _ Keith raises an eyebrow.

She laughs hysterically after Keith talks. “Yeah! It’s like.  _ Radar, _ but  _ gaydar.  _ Like you know how a radar can detect stuff? It’s the same concept. Except, only gay people have it, and they can detect other gays.” She holds up a finger, and winks her eye. “I’m sure you have a gaydar too then!” 

  
“I do?” He stutters, not completely understanding what she’s saying. “I- I never said I was gay.” 

She reaches out her arm, and rests it on Keith’s shoulder. “Come on, Keith.  _ I won’t judge you, I promise.”  _

The words hit Keith right in the heart. It still is a foreign concept to him to hear that people actually won’t judge him. All his life he had been around his family, and people at his private school that were really critical of all of his choices. He’s always thought that that’s just how life was going to be. He was under the impression that his life was going to be controlled, and ran by other people who knew more than him. He really never liked the concept of that, and when his parents kicked him out, he knew that was the last straw. After he began living with his uncle, and then with Lance, Pidge, and Hunk, he’s realized that nobody was really ever  _ judging  _ him. They were just living alongside him, letting him live his life how he wants, and he actually likes it. 

“Okay.” 

Ezor nods, and messes with Keith’s hair. “ _ Gosh, _ you’re like the only gay person I know, besides my girlfriend.” She sounds relieved. “ _ So… Lance.”  _ she begins, winking her eye.

Keith looks over at Lance again, who is still talking to the same girl. He had never really noticed how  _ good _ he actually looks. He’s obviously looked at Lance countless times, but he hasn’t really gotten the chance to  _ look _ at Lance. If he did, he was always afraid he would get called out for it, and he would ask him,  _ What the hell are you staring at? _ Or something else along the lines of that. 

Ezor is now gazing over at Lance too. “He’s back to talking to  _ that  _ girl again?” She scoffs and rolls her eyes, turning back to Keith. 

“Who’s that?”

“That’s Nyma. He’s been with her like six different times, and she  _ always _ breaks his heart.” She shakes her head, judgingly. “I’m not normally one to judge people’s choices but she always seems to bring him down.” She bites her lip, a concerned look filling her face. “It’s none of my business though.” She dismisses, smiling again. 

“Why does she break up with him all the time?” Keith asks, curious about the whole situation.

“I don’t know to be honest. I think she finds somebody better, or something. He never talks about it to us, so I know little to nothing about her.” Ezor shrugs, turning around to begin wiping down another table.

“Oh, uh- maybe I could ask him about it.” Keith says, but it sounds unsure. 

“You know him?” She turns her head towards Keith and raises an eyebrow. 

Keith looks confused, before he realizes that he didn’t really tell anybody that he  _ lives _ with Lance. “Oh. I’m his new roommate.” 

“Really?” she gasps. “Well that works out then. Huh?” she winks again, nudging Keith’s elbow. 

Keith rolls his eyes. “I just said he looks attractive, I didn’t say I have a crush on him.” He runs his hand through his hair. “Yet.” He whispers under his breath, just quiet enough for Ezor not to hear. 

_ Shit.  _ If Keith knew anything about himself, he knew that he always develops feelings for people he doesn’t have a chance with.  _ Come on Keith, _ don’t think of Lance in that sort of way. He’s just a roommate, and coworker at this point. Nothing else.

“If you keep staring at him, you will.” She pats his back and then walks over to the hostess stand to greet the new customers that just walked in. 

Keith turns his head away from Lance, and continues to wipe down the empty tables, doing the best he can to avoid eye contact with the bar.

 

♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢

 

_ VrrrrrrSKEEEEEEETSKEET _

 

Pidge jumps up to her feet as she hears an ear piercing screeching noise radiating through the kitchen walls. 

“Hunk what the hell?” She screams, running into the kitchen to make sure he isn’t dead. 

She breaks out laughing when she enters, as Hunk is completely drenched in a thick pink liquid. In front of him sits an empty blender with remnants of the attempted drink still in it. The lid is halfway across the room, lying on the floor. 

“Hunk. What. The hell.” She repeats, still trying to contain her laughter. 

“The blender.” He breaths, wiping the liquid off of his face. “Something is  _ wrong  _ with the blender.” 

“Clearly.” She walks over to the blender to investigate.

Before any sort of cleaning up could be done, the doorbell rings, causing Hunk to frantically attempt to clean himself up.

“Who’s here?” He questions, turning on the faucet and wetting a paper towel.

“Hell if I know.” Pidge shrugs, exiting the kitchen to answer the door because there’s no way in hell she was going to make Hunk answer the door looking like that. 

When she opens the door, she’s shocked to see her old roommate standing on the other side. He looks the exact same as he used to, the same scar, the same thick eyebrows, and the same partly dyed hair. 

“Whoa! Hey Shiro! I mean- I  _ Scarface  _ I forgot Lance said you were coming.” She winks. 

“Damn it, he told you to call me that didn’t he?” Shiro laughs, shaking his head in disapproval.

“ _ Of course not!”  _ Pidge lies, signaling for Shiro to enter. “So what’s up, how’ve you been?” She lightly punches his shoulder. 

“I’ve been pretty good. I just got a job at the Garrison school just down the road.” He nods, smiling contently.

“That’s awesome!” She shouts, shaking Shiro’s shoulders in excitement. “Did any kids chew your arms off yet?” 

Shiro laughs and shakes his head. “No, no! They aren’t that bad actually.” He turns his head around, slowly examining his old house. “Where’s Hunk?”

Pidge’s eyes widen and she twindles her fingers behind her back. “Ah, uh He’s- he’s a little preoccupied in the kitchen.”

“I wanna say hi!” Shiro says as he starts walking towards the kitchen.

“He’s not exactly- uh, cleaned up right now.” Pidge grabs him by the collar, stopping him in his tracks.

He turns around and raises an eyebrow. “What?”

Pidge stares at him, and then sighs. “Well. The blender kind of… you know,  _ blew up.” _ she reenacts the events with her hands. “...while he was using it.” 

Shiro burst into laughter and turns around, entering the kitchen without hesitation. Pidge follows him in, where Hunk is still frantically trying to clean up the mess of smoothie goo that’s coated everything in the room. 

“Shiro! What’s up!” Hunk smiles, trying to act like everything is normal. “Sorry, I forgot we were having company.” He looks down in shame.

His laughter finally calms down enough for him to speak. “You good?” 

Hunk lets out a puff of air. “Yes. Not the blender though.”

“Yeah it’s a goner.” Pidge interjects and shakes her head, staring down at the blender which is broken beyond repair. 

“Well, why don’t I go clean out my old room, and then we can catch up after you…” Shiro pauses. “...recompose yourself.”

“Sounds good man!” Hunk nods, and continues to wipe down the surfaces in the kitchen.  

Shiro grabs a few empty trash bags, and walks into the room and closes the door behind him. 

“Pidge could I get some, uh, help?” Hunk asks, embarrassment prevalent in his voice.  

“ _ Ugggghhhhh. Fine. _ ” Pidge shakes her head in disappointment, and grabs the roll of paper towels.

 

♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢

 

“Alright... Keith, you’re good to clock out!” An unfamiliar voice yells from the office. Keith looks over to see a face he doesn’t recognize sitting by the computer. He walks over to her because, come to think of it, he doesn’t actually know how to clock out.

As he gets closer, the dark skin woman looks up at him, with piercing blue eyes. “I don’t think I’ve actually formally introduced myself yet!” She holds her hand out. “I’m Allura, the owner of this place.” She gives his hand a gentle shake. Her voice has the same accent as Coran, and she’s just as friendly. 

“Nice to meet you.” Keith nods, giving her a gentle smile. “So, uh, how do I clock out again?” 

Allura laughs lightheartedly. “I forgot it was your first day! Here,” She reaches for his tablet. “You just click the  _ employee _ tab, and click  _ punch out,  _ and there you are!” She hands it back to him.

Keith looks at his tablet, and then back at Allura. “Is this mine? Do I keep it?” 

“No silly!” She punches his shoulder, but not hard enough for him to feel it. “You’ll just set it in the back. Ask Ezor to show you.” She smiles, and then points over to Ezor, who is leaning against the wall, texting on her phone. 

Keith walks over and she looks up before he reaches her. “I’m so ready to go home.” She says, rubbing her eyes.

“Me too.” He replies, then points down to the tablet. “Hey, where do these go?” 

“Oh follow me!” She takes it out of his hand, and walks to the back of the restaurant, where a big charging station is placed. She shows him how to plug them in, and how to make sure they are charging.

“Well, it was fun training you, Keith!” She pats his shoulder. “And uh, let me know if you, y’know, feel a certain way about  _ Lance.” _ She winks, and begins to walk away. 

“Heh, see ya!” He says awkwardly, scratching his elbow. 

He really shouldn’t have looked at Lance tonight the way he did. The way the light reflected off of him, just really suited him. His hair was perfectly messy, and his eyes were just  _ glowing.  _ He looked absolutely amazing.  _ But no. _ There’s  _ no way in hell _ Keith is going to let himself catch feelings for another straight guy. He was literally sweet talking that girl at the bar, and he always hears Pidge tell him about how he has dates with  _ girls, _ so he already knows he doesn’t have any type of chance. 

Keith jolts out of his state of deep thought as Lance is all of a sudden standing in front of him.

“Hey! How’d the first rodeo go, man?” He asks. Keith looks up at his eyes, and they are glowing the same way they were an hour ago when he saw him in the bar. 

“It went well.” Keith smiles, which makes Lance smile too. “You were right, Ezor is really nice.” 

“Yeah she’s pretty cool, huh?” Lance plugs in his tablet, and walks away, signalling for Keith to follow him.

They head back to the car, and as soon as they step outside, the sound of crickets fill the air, and Keith is surprised that it’s actually  _ nighttime. _ He really felt like he had only been there for two hours tops, and now it’s suddenly pitch dark outside. 

They both get in the car and Lance begins driving back to the house. Keith begins to think hard about what he saw at the bar.

“Who was that?” He blurts out without thought, and instantly regrets it because it definitely isn’t any of his business.

Lance looks over at Keith, but quickly puts his eyes back on the road. “Who was who?” 

_ Damn it Keith. _ “Uh. That girl.” He says quietly, trying to sound as casual as he can. “At the bar.” 

“Oh!” Lance smiles. “That’s Nyma. She’s my uh…” He pauses. “Girlfriend?” He sounds super unsure. “Well, she was, but we recently just started talking again. 

Keith has no idea why, but he feels a feeling of jealousy hit him in the stomach.  _ See? _ He’s totally straight. “Oh, nice.” He attempts to sound happy for him. 

Lance breathes. “Yeah…” 

 

♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢♡♢

 

After about an hour and a half, Hunk and Pidge are finally done cleaning up the pink smoothie mess that covered the entirety of the kitchen. 

“I’m never using a cheap blender again.” Hunk sighs in exhaustion. 

“Good.” Pidge breaths, wiping droplets of sweat from her forehead.

The two walk into the living room, and Pidge collapses on the recliner, and Hunk collapses on the couch. 

The door to Shiro’s old room opens, and he walks out with two full garbage bags of stuff in his hands. “Well, I think I’m done. I didn’t touch any of the  _ new guy’s _ stuff.” He sets the bags down on the ground, and takes a chair next to Hunk and Pidge. 

“Coolio!” Pidge holds her hand up. 

“So,  _ scarface,” _ Hunk starts, but Shiro inturrupts him.

“Ah, god. You too?” He rolls his eyes and chuckles.

“SO, SCARFACE,” Hunk laughs, but then regains himself. “How was your date with Allura? Down by the riverside?” 

Shiro bites his lip as if he is trying to remember something. “Hm..” He raises his eyebrow. 

“Remember? When I saw you at the grocery store?” Hunk attempts to get him to remember, but it still strikes him as odd that he had forgotten a romantic night like  _ that. _

“Oh. Right. Yeah it went good!” He nods, grinning a little bit. His voice cracks while he speaks, and he holds his throat and attempts to clear it.

“Just good?” Hunk questions, noticing the sudden difference in Shiro’s voice.

“Yeah, it went well.” Shiro laughs, taking out his cellphone. “It’s already after ten o’clock? I need to get going! I teach summer classes tomorrow!” Shiro jolts up from the chair and onto his feet. He grabs the garbage bags filled with his belongings and heads for the door. “Well, it was nice seeing you guys.” 

“Nice to see you too, dude! You  _ have to _ come visit sometime again!” Pidge yells, jumping to her feet and running to Shiro with a hug. He tries his best to hug back, but just ends up hitting Pidge with the bags.

“You should come stay for dinner sometime!” Hunk suggests, still laying on the couch.

“Yeah sounds good! Just don’t blow up another blender.” Shiro jokes, letting go of Pidge and heading for the door. 

“See ya guys!” He waves, closing the door behind him.

Pidge walks back over to the chair and falls back into it, and closes her eyes. “Gah, cleaning all that up really tired me out.”

“Me too man.” Hunk closes his eyes too. “Me too.” He sits in silence for a while, before sighing. “I hope Shiro and Allura are doing okay.” 

“What?” She opens her eyes, pushing her glasses up against her face.

“When I asked him how is date went, he was like… really vague.” Hunk explains. “And he’s never vague about  _ anything _ .” 

“Hmm. I’m not sure. I’ll confront him next time I see him.” Pidge grins, pulling out her phone and scrolling through Twitter. Hunk’s breathing slows, and soon, he’s lightly snoring. 

After another five minutes, the lock on the front door jiggles, and in walks a very tired looking Keith and Lance. 

Pidge jumps off the chair and onto her feet, just like she did when she ran to hug Shiro, and ran up to them before they could say anything. “Hi guys! How was it? How was your first day?” She questions excitedly. 

“It was pretty good! My trainer was really cool.” Keith says, his face falling into a very satisfied smile. 

“Yay! I’m so happy!” Pidge runs in to give Keith a hug. 

While Pidge hugs Keith, Lance walks over to Hunk and pokes his head until he wakes up. 

“Hunk. How the hell did you sleep through us coming through the door? If Keith and I were serial killers, you would’ve been dead by now.

Hunk groans and wipes his eyes until he’s able to see. “Man I’m sorry, today was  _ exhausting. _ ” 

“What happened?”

Hunk sighs, reminiscing the thoughts of what happened earlier in the kitchen.

“And why does it smell like fruit in here?” Lance adds on. 

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just felt like Ezor's character would be so fun to write, and that's why I included her! Except this time she isn't evil. 
> 
> It all goes downhill from here. 
> 
> Thanks so much for reading I appreciate you guys so much!! <3


End file.
